LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


JAMES  H.  CATHEY. 


THE  GENESIS  OF  LINCOLN. 


JAMES  H.  CATHEY. 


Truth  is  Stranger  Than  Fiction. 


AM   GLAD   YOU   HAVE   UNDERTAKEN  THE    'LINCOLN 
MYSTERY',  IF  SUCH  IT  CAN  BE  STYLED.      I  BE- 
LIEVE  ALL   THAT   I   HAVE   HEARD." 

—The  late  Col.Jno.  D.  Cameron. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1899 

BY 

JAMES  H.  CATHEY, 

In  the  Office  of  the  librarian  of  Congress 
at  Washington,  D.  C. 


(ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED.) 


11.04 


"  He  was,  in  the  most  significant  way,  a 
man  ivho  embodied  all  the  best  qualities  of 
unspoiled  middle-class  men" 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


"The  Characteristic  which  struck  me  most 
was  his  superabundance  of  common  sense" 
CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPKW. 


"There  have  indeed  been  times  when  such 
patriots  as  Garibaldi,  Kossuth,  and  Lincoln 
have  kindled  in  men  an  enthusiasm  akin 
to  adoration  and  worship" 

NEWELL  DWIGHT 


"//  fs  an  unquestioned  fact  that  Nancy 
Hanks  was  an  inmate  of  Abraham  Enloe^s 
home,  and  that  while  there  she  became  en- 
ceinte and  went  to  Kentucky" 

CAPT.  JAS.  W.  TERRELL. 


"The  people  in  this  country — all  the  old 
people  with  whom  I  talked — were  familiar 
with  the  'girl  as  Nancy  Hanks.'1'1 

CAPT.  E.  EVERETT. 


Dedication. 


TO  THE  FUTURE  BIOGRAPHER  WHO  MAY  SEARCH  FOR 
AI,!,   THE   FACTS,    AND   THE    COMING   GENERA- 
TIONS WHO  MAY  WANT  THE  WHOI,E  TRUTH, 
THIS  TRADITION  OF  ABRAHAM  UNCOI,N'S 
ORIGIN,  IS  SINCERELY  DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS. 


Chap.  Page. 

I    AN  EXTRAORDINARY  CASE 25 

a    A  COMPARATIVE  STUDY 81 

3  ABE  LINCOLN'S  HALF-BROTHER 104 

4  ABRAHAM  ENLOE 122 

5  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 141 

6  THE  ENLOES 162 

7  WISDOM  AND   PROPHECY 178 

8  ADDENDA.,  -   186 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page. 

1.  JAMES  H.  CATHEY. FRONTISPIECE. 

2.  SAWINOOKIH 134 

3.  COI,.  WM.  H.  THOMAS 80 

4.  THE  OI,D  ENI.OE  FARMHOUSE 34 

5.  ABRAHAM  I,INCOI,N 84 

6.  WESLEY  ENI<OE 84 

7.  MRS.  JUUA  ENI,OE  BIRD 68 

8.  MISS  EUZA  ENI,OE 96 

9.  MRS.  A.  J.  PATTON 162 

10.  MRS.  FI,OYD 164 

n.  WM.  A.  ENLOE 168 

12.  J.  FRANK  ENI,OE 174 

13.  ROBT.  WALKER  EN^OE too 

14.  A.  IvINCOI^N 92 

15.  WESLEY  ENI,OE 93 

16.  WESLEY  M.  ENI.OS 62 

17.  CAPT.  WM.  A.  ENI,OB 168,  170 

18.  ABRAHAM  I,INCOt,N— BY  BRADY 222 

19.  WESLEY  M.  ENUJE. 223 

20.  ABRAHAM  UNCOI,N— BY  BRADY- 230 

21.  WESLEY  EN^OE 231 

22.  JOHN  E.  BURTON 248 


FOREWORD. 


Generous  reader,  traverse  with  me  the  ensu- 
ing pages  and  they  shall  open  to  you  a  "sealed 
book."  They  shall  lead  along  the  neglected 
path  of  unwritten  history  and  reveal  to  you, 
with  care,  an  interesting  fact  in  the  story  of 
America's  most  remarkable  man. 

They  may  tear  the  veil  of  popular  modesty 
only  to  discover  the  naked  truth. 

The  truth  cannot  hurt  the  living  or  the 
dead. 

It  is  often  a  good  popular  nervine  to 
disturb  the  commonplace  with  the  heroic, 
the  romantic,  the  tragic. 

It  is  better  still  to  replace  popular  shadow 
of  doubt  with  popular  sunshine  of  fidelity. 

It  is  said,  "  there  is  a  skeleton  in  every 
closet  and  that  must  not  be  disturbed."  There 


14 

is  no  avoiding  it  with  individuals  or  aggrega- 
tions. 

There  should  be  no  attempt  to  avoid  explor- 
ing the  dimmest  recesses  in  the  life  of  a  real 
hero.  The  life  and  acts  of  a  hero  are  not  cir- 
cumscribed by  narrow  lines.  The  atmosphere 
that  belongs  to  him  at  once  becomes  free  and 
self-imparting.  Each  and  every  phase  of  him 
is  of  the  intensest  interest  to  humanity;  at 
once  becomes,  and  of  right  should  become,  a 
common  heritage. 

Tradition  is  the  musty  old  closet  in  which 
has  been  stowed  for  thousands  of  years  the 
disjoined  skeletons  of  history.  These  should 
be  hauled  forth,  articulated,  clothed  with  the 
flesh,  and  animated  with  the  blood  of  the  living 
truth. 

There  is  one  narrative  of  human  events  in 
which  there  is  no  evidence  of  a  traditional 
closet — the  Bible.  In  this  ancient  bundle  of 
truth  "a  spade  is  called  a  spade." 

If  the  "  man  after  God's  own  heart"  took  his 


'5 

fellow's  life  that  he  might  obtain  his  wife,  this 
book  -says  so  in  so  many  blunt  words.  If  the 
"  father  of  the  faithful"  drove  his  bond-woman 
and  their  illegitimate  son  into  the  wilderness 
to  die,  to  please  his  irate  wife,  such  is  the  rec- 
ord. 

But  it  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  try  to  recon- 
cile moral  incongruities.  It  should  be  suffi- 
cient for  one  to  reflect  that  our  world  is  inhab- 
ited by  men  ;  that  it  has  been  so  and  doubt- 
less will. 

Yielding  to  a  moral  cowardice — a  feeling 
that  recoils  at  the  thought  of  making  public 
one's  own  faults — historians  have,  with  a  few 
refreshing  exceptions,  cast  aside  one-half  the 
events  of  the  world. 

The  custom  to  pass  unnoticed  the  vices, 
which  make  up  the  larger  moiety  of  the  man, 
has  lead  them  to  an  immoderate  exaggeration 
of  his  virtues. 

To  these,  and  a  false  notion  of  taste,  is  trace- 
able the  failure  to  record  volumes  without 


i6 

number  of  the  most  thrilling  history.  Here 
is  the  trysting-place  of  truant  tradition  and 
family  lore.  Here,  too,  is  a  fruitful  nursery 
of  individual  and  national  hypocrisy. 

The  recording  of  the  good,  only,  in  the  life 
of  a  person  or  a  nation,  is  a  tale  half  told,  a 
song  half  sung — often  a  wondrous  tale,  an  epic 
song. 

The  statue  is  not  complete  till  the  sculptor 
has  watched  the  last  minute  characteristic  of 
the  original  follow  the  errand  of  his  chisel. 
The  flower  does  not  show  forth  all  its  deli- 
cate tints  in  rounded  splendor  till  its  last  ten- 
der petal  is  full  blown. 

Cicero  tells  us  that  the  first  and  fundamen- 
tal law  of  history  is,  "  That  it  should  neither 
dare  to  say  anything  that  is  false  or  fear  to  say 
anything  that  is  true,  nor  give  any  just  suspi- 
cion of  favor  or  disaffection." 

This  is  the  standard  of  the  true  historian. 
Apropos  to  this,  Edward  Everett  Hale  says : 
"The  history  of  mankind  is  made  up  of  the 


17 

biographies  of  men."  If  this  be  true,  Cicero's 
standard  will  apply  to  biography  with  double 
force. 

The  scriptural  narrative  traces  the  lineage  of 
Christ  along  a  solid  chain  of  forty-two  genera- 
tions. If  the  sacred  chronicler  essayed  to  trace, 
without  trepidation,  so  remote  an  origin  as  that 
of  the  divine  Christ,  why  should  one  tremble  or 
hesitate  to  inquire  after  the  beginning  of  a 
great,  though  finite  man  ?  The  day  of  miracles 
has  passed  these  eighteen  hundred  years,  and 
something  cannot  come  of  nothing. 

It  is  the  historical  teaching  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  virtually  "  without  ancestors,  fel- 
lows, or  successors."  Whether  this  is  a  delu- 
sion it  does  not  concern  us  to  argue.  He  came 
into  the  world,  and  the  world  understood  him 
not. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  sole  purpose  of  this  little 
book  to  present  a  tradition  tending  to  prove 
that  this  wonderful  man  was  not  without  an- 
cestors. His  mother  was  Nancy  Hanks.  If 


i8 

lie  was  the  son  of  a  worthy  sire  the  world  is 
entitled  to  know  who  that  sire  was ;  when,, 
where  and  how  he  lived  ;  whence  he  came  and 
what  his  characteristics. 

For  ninety  years,  or  thereabout,  from  the 
time  it  is  said  Abraham  Lincoln  was  begotten 
or  born,  as  the  case  was,  and  the  breeze 
occurred  in  the  Enloe  home,  there  has  sub- 
sisted among  the  honest  people  at  the  center 
of  authority  a  lively  tradition  that  Abraham, 
the  head  of  the  Enloe  family,  was  Lincoln's 
father  by  Nancy  Hanks,  who  occupied  the  po- 
sition of  servant-girl  in  the  Knloe  household. 

So  confident  and  persistent  have  the  keepers 
of  this  old  testimony  to  the  origin  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  been,  when  plied  with  interrogatories, 
that  they  knew  what  they  were  talking  about, 
that  there  was  no  opening  for  superstition,  and 
the  most  one  who  was  inclined  to  be  skeptical 
could  do  was  to  wonder  and  say  nothing. 

One  might  hug  his  incredulity  by  imagin- 
ing that  the  people  who  fathered  the  strange 


accounts  of  Nancy  Hanks  and  Abraham  Enloe 
and  a  child,  and  the  wonderful  story  of  the 
striking  personal  likeness  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  Wesley  Enloe,  are  illiterate,  fanatical  folk 
who  have  conjured  up  a  fragmentary  fable, 
how  and  for  what  they  know  not ;  but  this 
incredulity  is  all  cleared  away,  like  fog  before 
the  sunbeams,  when  one  learns  that  the  custo- 
dians of  the  "Lincoln  tradition"  are  numbered 
by  the  scores  and  hundreds  of  the  first  people — 
men  and  women — of  Western  North  Carolina. 
Ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen,  not  only  of  the 
immediate  section,  but  also  of  distant  States, 
visiting  at  Asheville  and  other  places  of  resort 
in  our  mountains,  finding  a  thread  of  the  tra- 
dition, they  pulled  until  their  curiosity,  at 
least,  becoming  excited,  they  visited  Wesley 
Enloe,  the  alleged  half-brother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  in  his  hospitable  mountain  home, 
were  fiTed  with  amazement,  and  went  away 
convinced  that  the  tradition  was  wrought  in 
-cords  that  could  not  easily  be  broken. 


20 

People  who  were  familiar  with  Mr.  Lincoln's 
history,  or  who  knew  him  personally,  were 
struck  with  the  strange  physical  resemblance 
on  first  sight,  and  then  watched  a  series  of 
impersonations  of  Lincoln,  as  they  studied  the 
features  and  noted  the  varying  postures  of 
the  person  of  Wesley  Enloe. 

The  remarkable  tradition,  with  its  flesh  and 
blood  corroboration,  was  from  time  to  time 
engaged  to  be  written  up  by  journalists,  law- 
yers and  clergymen  of  culture  and  standing, 
but  nothing  more  than  a  hasty,  desultory 
newspaper  article  was  the  result.  The  people 
over,  a  very  limited  area  of  population  were 
being  made  conversant  with  the  valuable  tra- 
dition, and  its  worthy  repositors  were,  one  by 
one,  stepping  from  the  earthly  stage.  It  was 
plainly  apparent  that  in  a  very  few  years  the 
old  generation  would  be  gone,  and  a  truth  of 
American  history,  by  sheer  neglect,  would  be 
forever  lost. 

We    felt    our   incapacity    to    undertake   so- 


21 

responsible  a  task.  We  were  conscious  of  the 
delicacy  of  the  undertaking,  but  the  implicit, 
unquestioned  faith  which  we  had  in  the  truth- 
fulness of  the  tradition  gave  us  a  courage 
which  shrank  not  from  the  most  formidable- 
looking  anti-traditional  hobgoblin. 

Thus  emboldened  we  set  to  work  to  gather  the 
odds  and  ends  of  our  folk-history.  We  resolved 
at  the  oiitset  that  we  would  interrogate  none 
but  the  most  trustworthy — people  who  were  in 
the  best  position  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith 
that  was  in  them,  together  with  the  story  of 
the  relatives  of  the  distinguished  subject  of 
our  memoir.  This  we  have,  in  every  instance, 
done.  In  1895  tne  writer  conceived  the  idea 
of  writing  a  newspaper  or  magazine  article  for 
the  simple  purpose  of  making  known  the  tra- 
dition to  the  public  generally,  hoping  thereby 
to  attract  the  attention  of  the  enterprising 
journalist,  and  after  that  the  enduring  chron- 
icler; but  private  concerns  interfered,  and  our 
purpose  was  frustrated  for  the  time.  Luckily, 


22 

however,  we  then  obtained  the  statements  of 
some  very  aged  gentlemen  whose  testimony 
will  herein  appear,  and  which  is  of  the  most 
important  character,  who  have  since  died. 

We  have  been  extremely  fortunate  in  enlist- 
ing the  co-operation  of  various  good  and  often 
distinguished  citizens  in  our  search  for  data. 
Some  of  these  have  passed  away  since  we  began 
our  first  investigation.  Those  who  are  "up 
and  able  to  be  about "  are  the  venerable  half- 
brother  of  our  illustrious  subject,  Mr.  Wesley 
M.  Enloe,  and  his  nephew,  Capt.  Wm.  A.  Enloe ; 
Dr.  Isaac  N.  Enloe,  of  Illinois,  and  Mr.  Sam. 
G.  Enloe,  of  Missouri ;  Mr.  J.  Frank  Enloe,  of 
North  Carolina, and  Mrs.  Floyd,  of  Texas,  son 
and  neice  of  Wesley  M.  Enloe ;  Mr.  H.  J.  Beck, 
of  Ocona  Lufta,  N.  C. ;  C.  A.  Ragland,  Esq., 
of  Stockton,  Mo. ;  Mr.  Joseph  A.  Collins,  of 
Clyde,  N.  C. ;  Capt.  E.  Everett,  and  Mr.  D.  K. 
Collins,  of  Bryson  City,  N.  C. ;  the  vener- 
able Philip  Dills,  Hon.  William  A.  Dills,  and 
Mr.  Sion  T.  Early,  of  Dillsboro,  N.  C. ;  and 
Captain  James  W.  Terrell,  of  Webster,  N.  C. 


23 

To  each  of  these  gentlemen,  and  to  Mrs. 
Floyd,  the  writer  wishes  to  express  his  most 
sincere  thanks.  He  has  been  most  deeply 
touched  by  the  generous  and  always  courteous 
response  his  appeals  have  met  from  each  and 
all  of  them,  and  his  obligation  to  them  can 
only  be  enhanced  by  the  increase  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  historical  truth  as  it  goes  into 
the  world  fresh  from  their  honest  and  dis- 
interested lips.  In  voicing  the  memory  of 
hundreds,  these  several  individuals  will,  for  the 
"first  time,  bring  face  to  face  with  the  world  a 
fact  that  is  worth  the  world's  while. 

Tradition  once  said :  "  Premature  pangs 
seized  the  mother  of  Napoleon  while  she  was 
at  church.  She  hurried  home,  barely  reach- 
ing her  apartment  when  the  heroic  babe  was 
delivered,  without  accoucheur,  on  a  piece  of 
tapestry  inwrought  with  an  effigy  of  Achilles." 
Gradually  becoming  credulous,  history  says 
now:  "This  probably  occurred." 

There    is    not    current  a  tradition   of  the 


24 

Corsican  that  is  entitled  to  more  credit  than 
the  North  Carolina  tradition  of  the  Immortal 
Rail-splitter.  We  therefore  give  it  to  you 
and  the  future  historian,  as  you  have  it,  in. 
modest  but  faithful  form. 

JAMES  H.  CATHKY. 
Sylva,  N.  C. 


CHAPTER  I. 
AN  EXTRAORDINARY  CASE. 


In  the  year  1444,  the  story  goes,  Charles 
VII.  of  France,  a  man  of  forty,  became  sud- 
denly and  deeply  enamored  of  a  young  French- 
woman of  not  more  than  half  his  years,  but 
more  than  twice  his  tact ;  and  one  of  the 
brightest,  wittiest,  and  most  beautiful  of 
women. 

For  six  long  years  this  nymph  of  grace  and 
mischief  kept  King  Charles  wound  tightly  in 
her  web  of  irresistible  charms. 

She  caused  him  to  neglect  his  most  excel- 
lent consort,  the  queen,  and  her  children  ;  to 
place  implacable  hatred  in  the  heart  of  Louis, 
the  king's  son,  toward  his  father. 

She  beguiled  him  to  provide  her  with  regal 


26 

palaces  throughout  his  realm  ;  adorn  her  with 
the  most  costly  apparel  and  bedeck  her  with 
the  rarest  jewels  ;  to  have  her  attended  by  long 
retinues  of  liveried  servants  and  trained  court- 
iers. She  presented  the  king  with  bright  and 
beautiful  children;  he  adored  Agnes  Sorel 
with  the  wild  intensity  of  a  youthful  lover, 
and  the  proud  court  of  France,  on  bended 
knee,  made  obeisance  to  her. 

* 

At  the  end  of  the  six  years  she  suddenly 
died.  The  affair  was  first  the  property  of  gos- 
sip, then  of  tradition. 

For  many  years  the  story  of  Charles  and 
Agnes  was  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth. 

Tales  of  her  exquisite  beauty  and  charms 
were  familiar  to  prince  and  peasant.  The  se- 
cret of  her  beauty  and  attractions  was  said  to 
have  been  her  blond  hair  and  teeth  of  rarest 
pearl,  adorned  at  her  will  by  the  most  bewitch- 
ing smile. 

As  the  years  continued  and  the  world  heark- 
ened to  these  seemingly  extravagant  reports, 


27 

there  might  have  been  seen  significant  tossings 
of  the  head,  and  there  might  have  been  heard 
the  murmurings  of  an  incredulous  public. 
But  in  the  year  1777,  three  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-seven years  after  Charles  the  Seventh  had 
gently  laid  Agnes  in  her  tomb  at  Loches,  it 
was  decided  by  some  ecclesiastics  that  her 
monument  was  in  the  way  and  that  it  must  be 
removed.  The  monument  was  accordingly 
torn  down,  the  marble  slab  was  raised,  and  at 
a  distance  of  a  few  feet  in  the  ground  the 
workman  struck  a  coffin,  the  lid  of  which  was 
taken  away,  then  another  of  lead,  which,  when 
opened,  disclosed  a  third  of  iron,  inside  of 
which  they  found  a  jaw  filled  with  rows  of 
shapely  teeth,  and  long,  flowing  braids  of  blond 
hair  soft  as  velvet.  Since  this  it  is  said  that 
no  Frenchman  has  dared  doubt  the  popular 
story  of  the  personal  beauty  of  Agnes  Sorel. 

This  story  of  the  king's  mistress  is  a  demon- 
stration of  the  substantial  truth  of  any  deep- 
rooted  tradition. 


Illustrated  thus  tradition  becomes  what  in 
fact  it  always  is,  a  loud  panegyric  to  the  col- 
lective veracity  of  mankind.  From  out  the 
shafted  grave  of  human  charity  and  the  iron 
casket  of  canonization  shall  come  forth  the 
teeth  and  tresses  of  convincing  testimony. 

Tradition  is  the  principal  means  by  which 
plain  people  preserve  a  knowledge  of  events. 
History  is  made  up  of  tradition.  A  very  small 
percentage  of  the  happenings  of  the  world  is 
recorded,  the  historian  being  an  eye-witness. 
Even  those  events  that  are  recorded  when  they 
take  place  are  anticipated,  being  of  the  most 
important  character,  and  become  the  subjects 
of  a  score  of  chroniclers,  all  embalming  the 
same  substantial  facts,  but  immersed  in  the 
peculiar  oils  and  spices  of  each  individual 
chronicler. 

Many  of  the  most  delicate  arid  yet  indispen- 
sable notes  of  history  that  tell  of  the  real 
character  of  people,  savage  and  savant,  come 
•down  the  decades  by  word  of  mouth.  They 


29 

are  passed  from  ear  to  ear  in  silent  pride  and 
childish  confidence  around  the  cozy  firesides 
of  neighborhoods  and  states. 

It  is  the  inestimable  and  inalienable  right 
of  memory. 

Deprive,  if  it  were  possible,  a  people  of  their 
traditions,  and  you  will  rob  memory  of  the 
tenderer  half  of  its  trophies.  You  will  trans- 
form joyous  youth  into  sober  manhood  in  a 
single  night,  and  turn  the  sunny  plain  of  the 
aged  into  a  wailing  desert  in  a  single  day. 

Every  long-established  and  generally  ac- 
cepted tradition  bears  upon  its  face  the  author- 
ity of  truth.  The  popular  gaze  melts  away 
the  mist,  and  popular  scrutiny  finds  out  the 
facts ;  popular  judgment  weighs  these  facts, 
and  popular  honesty  discloses  them. 

The  birth  and  many  of  the  events  in  the 
life  of  Christ  were  for  a  long  while  confided 
to  tradition's  sacred  keeping.  Now  that  they 
are  written  in  books  and  chiseled  in  marble, 
who  doubts  the  tale  of  the  shepherds  and  ad- 
missions of  the  wise  men  ? 


30 

The  birth  and  life  of  Christ  carry  with  them 
divine  authorization.  So  does  any  truth. 

The  following  tradition  is  more  than  ninety 
years  old.  Its  center  of  authority  is  Swain 
and  neighboring  counties  of  Western  North 
Carolina : 

Some  time  in  the  early  years  of  the  century, 
variously  given  1803,  1805,  1806,  and  i8o8r 
there  was  living  in  the  family  of  Abraham 
Enloe,  of  Ocona  Lufta,  N.  C.,  a  young  woman 
whose  name  was  Nancy  Hanks.  This  young 
woman  remained  in  the  household,  faring  as 
one  of  the  family  until,  it  becoming  apparent 
that  she  was  in  a  state  of  increase,  and  there 
appearing  signs  of  the  approach  of  domestic 
infelicity,  she  was  quietly  removed,  at  the  in- 
stance of  Abraham  Enloe,  to  Kentucky. 

This  is  the  most  commonly  accepted  version 
of  the  event. 

Another  pretty  current  construction  of  the 
story  is  that  when  Abraham  Enloe  emigrated 
irom  Rutherford  county,  there  came  with  his 


3' 

family  a  servant-girl  whose  name  was  Nancy 
Hanks,  and  who,  after  a  time,  gave  birth  to  a 
boy  child  which  so  much  resembled  the  legit- 
imate heirs  of  Abraham  Enloe,  that  their 
mother  warmly  objected  to  the  presence  of  so 
unpleasant  a  reminder,  and  the  embarrassed 
husband  had  the  young  child  and  its  mother 
spirited  to  Kentucky.  These  are  the  two  uni- 
versally accepted  versions  of  the  one  thor- 
oughly accredited  fact. 

The  tradition  subsists  on  four  salient  and 
perfectly  conversant  points : 

First. — That  in  the  early  years  of  the  cen- 
tury a  young  woman  took  up  her  abode  at 
Abraham  Enloe's,  in  the  capacity  of  hired 
girl,  whose  name  was  Nancy  Hanks. 

Second. That  this  same  girl,  Nancy 

Hanks,  while  living  at  Abraham  Enloe's,  be- 
came enceinte ;  or  entangled  in  an  embarrass- 
ment in  which  her  illegitimate  child  was  the 
unconscious  instigator. 

Third'. — That  the  wife  of  Abraham  Enloe, 


32 

believing  that  her  husband  was  the  father  of 
Nancy  Hauks's  child,  and  being  unwilling  to 
countenance  what  she  conceived  to  be  a  re- 
proach iipon  herself  and  children,  demanded 
the  disconnection  of  Nancy  Hanks  from  her 
household. 

Fourth. — That  Abraham  Enloe  heeded  the 
demand  of  his  wife  and  forthwith  effected  the 
transportation  of  Nancy  Hanks  and  her  off- 
spring to  the  State  of  Kentucky. 

"  Wherefore  she  said  unto  Abraham,  cast 
out  the  bondwoman  and  her  son,  for  the  son 
of  this  bondwoman  shall  not  be  heir  with  my 
son,  even  with  Isaac. 

And  the  thing  was  very  grievous  in  Abra- 
ham's sight  because  of  his  son. 

And  God  said  unto  Abraham,  Let  it  not  be 
grievous  in  thy  sight  because  of  the  lad,  and 
because  of  thy  bondwoman ;  in  all  that  Sarah 
hath  said  unto  thee,  hearken  unto  her  voice  ; 
for  in  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called. 

And  also  of  the  son  of  the  bondwoman  will 
I  make  a  nation,  because  he  is  thy  seed. 


33 

And  Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the  morning 
and  took  bread  and  a  bottle  of  water,  and  gave 
it  unto  Hagar,  putting  it  on  her  shoulder,  and 
the  child,  and  sent  her  away;  and  she  departed 
.and  wandered  in  the  wilderness  of  Beersheba. 

And  the  water  was  spent  in  the  bottle,  and 
:she  cast  the  child  under  one  of  the  shrubs. 
And  she  went  and  sat  her  down  over  against 
him  a  good  way  off,  as  it  were  a  bow-shot ;  for 
she  said  let  me  not  see  the  death  of  the  child. 
And  she  sat  over  against  him  and  lifted  up 
her  voice  and  wept. 

And  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad ;  and 
the  angel  of  God  called  to  Hagar  out  of  heaven 
.and  said  unto  her  :  What  aileth  thee,  Hagar  ? 
fear  not ;  for  God  has  heard  the  voice  of  the 
lad  where  he  is.  Arise,  lift  up  the  lad  and 
hold  him  in  thine  hand ;  for  I  will  make  him 
.a  great  nation. 

And  God  opened  her  eyes  and  she  saw  a 
well  of  water  ;  and  she  went  and  filled  the  bot- 
tle with  water  and  gave  the  lad  drink. 


34 

And  God  was  with  the  lad,  and  he  grew  and? 
dwelt  in  the  wilderness,  and  became  an  archer. 
And  he  dwelt  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran." 

This  is  the  entire  beautiful  and  pathetic 
story  of  Hagar  and  her  son.  As  one  reads  it 
how  much  of  it  seems  analogous  to  poor 
Nancy  Hanks  and  the  account  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  childhood. 

But  if  men  and  women  living  under  kindred, 
circumstances  a  little  more  than  three-quarters - 
of  a  century  since  are  as  much  entitled  to  be 
believed  as  Moses,  the  drama  of  Abraham 
and  Sarah  and  their  bondwoman  Hagar,  and. 
her  child,  in  this  tradition,  is  again  enacted 
with  strange  fidelity.  Bereft  of  the  tender 
guardianship  of  either  father  or  mother,  and 
thrown  adrift  on  the  cold  charity  of  the  world, 
Nancy  Hanks,  in  what  particular  manner  is 
unknown  at  this  distant  day,  sought  shelter 
under  the  kindly  roof  of  Abraham  Enloe. 

She  was  young,  doubtless  yet  in  her  teens» 
The  bloom  of  youth  had  not  faded  from  her 


THE  OLD  HOUSE. 

The  Residence  of  Wesley  Enloe,  and  the  House  of 
Abraham  Enloe  when  Nancy  Hanks  was  Transported 
to  Kentucky. 


35 

"brow.  The  expression  of  native  intelligence, 
saddened  by  scenes  of  poverty  and  pain,  shone 
from  her  eye.  In  her  voice  ran  a  tone  of  mel- 
ancholy, betraying  a  life  of  sorrow  and  neglect. 

It  was  a  red-letter  day  for  her  when  she  was 
^welcomed  by  the  family  into  the  comfortable 
home  of  Abraham  Enloe.  Never  had  the  sun 
shone  brighter  or  the  birds  sung  sweeter  to 
her  than  on  that  day.  She  drank  afresh  life's 
invigorating  elixir,  and  dreamed  for  the  first 
time  of  some  of  its  most  pleasant  realities. 

Her  face  became  changed ;  there  was  now 
no  mingled  look  of  weariness  and  woe,  only  a 
faint  trace  of  the  sad.  Her  eye  was  changed  ; 
there  was  now  the  sparkle  of  light  and  life, 
with  the  dimmest  expression  of  gloom.  Her 
voice  was  changed  ;  there  was  now  the  music 
of  contentment  and  peace,  with  the  softest  ac- 
companiment of  grief. 

In  a  word,  from  the  day  Nancy  Hanks  en- 
tered the  home  of  Abraham  Enloe  hers  was 
.the  happy  fortune  for  the  first  time  in  her  life 


to  know  what  was  meant  by  having  comforta- 
ble clothes,  a  good  bed,  nutritious  food  and; 
warm  friends,  and  ere  she  was  aware  rosy 
health  and  radiant  hope  had  stolen  into  her 
being  and  taken  up  their  abode. 

She  had  now  learned  the  formal  round  of 
household  chores,  and  her  life  became  halcyon. 
In  her  step  was  the  light,  quick  spring  of  youthr 
and  she  turned  off  the  domestic  duties  with  a. 
despatch  and  ease  that  would  have  done  credit, 
to  one  of  more  practiced  skill. 

Months,  and  it  may  be  years,  passed  thus, 
and  the  cherry  presence  and  admirable  service 
of  Nancy  Hanks  engrafted  themselves  into  the 
family  life  and  economy  of  Abraham  Enloe  7. 
she  was  by  mutual  and  inadvertent  acknowl- 
edgment one  of  its  members. 

But  the  time  came  when  the  "even  tenor  )T" 
of  Abraham  Enloe's  household  was  disturbed  -T 
it  was  a  sly  and  impious  mishap,  for  which  the 
head  of  the  household  was  held  by  his  wife  to- 
be  primarily  responsible. 


37 

It  was  a  sad  hour  when  Nancy  Hanks  was 
forced  by  her  mistake  to  take  a  final  leave  of 
her  otherwise  happy  home  in  the  Carolina 
mountains. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  indirectly  Abra- 
ham Enloe  gave  her  the  "bread  and  bottle  of 
water  "  the  morning  she  was  sent  into  the  for- 
est and  toward  her  Kentucky  home.  Nay, 
more,  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  was  better 
to  her  and  his  child  than  was  Abraham  of  old 
to  Hagar  and  his,  for  he  did  not  set  them 
adrift  in  the  wilderness  to  survive  or  perish  as 
it  pleased  providence,  but  like  a  man  with  a 
great  compassionate  heart,  provided  them 
horses  and  a  safe  consort  to  bring  them  to 
their  predetermined  destination. 

However  remarkable  the  similarity  in  phys- 
ical circumstances,  equally  wonderful  is  the 
moral  analogy  of  these  two  cases. 

If  the  case  of  Hagar  and  her  tender  boy 
presents  a  picture  of  pity  and  despair,  that  of 
Nancy  Hanks  and  her  infant  child  presents  a 


38 

scene  that  is  the  very  soul  of  sorrow  and  re- 
gret. The  parallel  does  not  cease  with  their 
banishment  and  journeyings,  but  is  sustained 
in  the  privations  and  sufferings  in  childhood 
and  youth,  and  the  exalted  honor  and  distinc- 
tion of  the  mature  manhood  of  Ishmael  and 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

Charles  Kingsley  says :  "  It  was  ordained, 
ages  since,  into  what  particular  spot  each 
grain  of  gold  should  be  washed  down  from  an 
Australian  quartz  reef,  that  a  certain  man 
might  find  it  at  a  certain  moment  and  crisis  of 
his  life." 

A  learned  divine  recently  said  :  "  St  John 
wrote  his  gospels  about  sixty  years  after  the 
events  took  place.  Yet  he  had  an  old  man's 
vivid  recollection  of  distant  occurrences." 

Tendering  them  these  words  of  assurance 
from  most  eminent  authority,  we  shall  here 
turn  over  this  tradition,  for  the  time  being,  to 
its  faithful  repositors. 


39 

PHILIP  DILLS. 

Mr.  Dills  was  born  in  Rutherford  county, 
K.  C.,  January  10,  1808.  His  father  emi- 
grated to  the  mountains  of  Western  North 
Carolina  almost  contemporaneously  with 
Abraham  Bnloe.  Although  Mr.  Dills  was 
four  years  old  when  Jackson  whipped  Paken- 
ham  at  New  Orleans,  he  is  nimble  both  in 
body  and  mind.  He  describes  the  removal  of 
the  Cherokees  west  of  the  Mississippi ;  tells 
of  the  elections  when  Clay  and  Jackson  were 
rivals — of  casting  his  first  vote  for  the  latter ; 
recalls  the  personal  appearance  of  John  C. 
Calhoun,  whom  he  saw  and  with  whom  he 
talked ;  the  duel  between  Sam  Carson  and 
Dr.  Vance,  and  many  other  incidents  of  early 
days  he  distinctly  remembers  and  recites  with 
genuine  gusto. 

Mr.  Dills  is  a  citizen  of  Jackson  county- 
His  post-office  is  Dillsboro.  He  said  : 

"Although  a  generation  younger  and  liv- 
ing some  twenty-five  miles  from  him,  I  knew 


40 

Abraham  Enloe  personally  and  intimately. 
I  lived  on  the  road  which  he  frequently  trav- 
eled in  his  trips  south,  and  he  made  my  house 
a  stopping-place.  He  was  a  large  man,  tall, 
with  dark  complexion,  and  coarse,  black  hair. 
He  was  a  splendid  looking  man,  and  a  man 
of  fine  sense.  His  judgment  was  taken  as  a 
guide,  and  he  was  respected  and  looked  up  to- 
in  his  time. 

"  I  do  not  know  when  I  first  heard  of  his 
relation  with  Nancy  Hanks,  but  it  was  many 
years  before  the  civil  war,  and  while  I  was  a 
very  young  man.  The  circumstance  was 
related  in  my  hearing  by  the  generation  older 
than  myself,  and  I  heard  it  talked  over  time 
and  again  later.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Abra- 
ham Enloe  was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln/' 

WALKER  BATTLE. 

Mr.  Battle  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in 
Haywood  county.  His  father  was  one  of 
the  three  men  who  came  to  Ocona  Lufta  with 


Abraham  Enloe.  He  was  a  highly  respected 
citizen  of  Swaia  county.  The  following- 
statement  was  received  from  him  in  1895, 
He  has  since  died.  His  son,  Milton  Battle,  a 
reputable  citizen,  is  familiar  with  his  father's- 
statement.  His  post-office  is  Bryson  Cityr 
N.  C.  Walker  Battle  said  : 

"  My  father  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of 
this  country.  He  came  here  with  Abraham 
Enloe.  I  have  lived  here  my  entire  life,  and 
I  knew  Abraham  Enloe  and  his  family  almost 
as  well  as  I  knew  my  own. 

"The  incident  occurred,  of  course,  before 
my  day,  but  I  distinctly  remember  hearing 
my  own  family  tell  of  the  trouble  between 
Abraham  Enloe  and  Nancy  Hanks  when  I 
was  a  boy.  I  recall,  as  if  it  were  but  yester- 
day, hearing  them  speak  of  Nancy's  removal 
to  Kentucky  and  that  she  married  there  a 
fellow  by  the  name  of  Lincoln ;  that  Abraham. 
Enloe  had  some  kind  of  correspondence  with, 
the  woman  after  he  sent  her  to  Kentucky — 


42 

-sent  her  something — and  that  he  had  to  be 
very  cautious  to  keep  his  wife  from  finding  it 
out. 

"There  is  no  doubt  as  to  Nancy  Hanks 
having  once  lived  in  the  family  of  Abe 
Enloe,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  she  was  the 
-mother  of  a  child  by  him. 

"  No,  I  never  saw  Nancy  Hanks's  name  in 
print  iu  my  life,  and  never  saw  a  sketch  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  or  heard  of  him,  until  he 
became  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  in 
1860." 

WILLIAM  H.  CONLEY. 

Mr.  Conley  was  born  about  the  year  1812, 
in  Haywood  county.  He  lived  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  within  fifteen  miles  of  Abra- 
ham Enloe's.  He  was  a  man  of  intelligence 
and  perfect  veracity.  The  following  state- 
ment, the  original  of  which  is  in  the  writer's 
possession,  was  obtained  from  him  in  1895. 
.He  has  since  died. 


43 

Mr.  Conley  said: 

"My  father,  James  Conley,  was  the  first  white- 
man  to  settle  on  the  creek  in  this  (Swain) 
county,  which  bears  his  name.  Abraham  En- 
loe  was  one  of  the  first  to  settle  on  Ocona 
L/ufta.  Enloe  and  my  father  were  warm 
friends.  I  knew  Abe  Enloe  myself  well.  He 
was  an  impressive  looking  man.  On  first  sight 
you  were  compelled  to  think  that  there  was 
something  extraordinary  in  him,  and  when 
you  became  acquainted  with  him  your  first  irrv. 
pression  was  confirmed.  He  was  far  above  the 
average  man  in  mind. 

"As  to  the  tradition :  I  remember  when  I 
was  a  lad,  on  one  occasion  some  of  the  women, 
of  the  settlement  were  at  my  father's  house,, 
and  in  conversation  with  my  mother  they  had 
a  great  deal  to  say  about  some  trouble  that  had 
once  occurred  between  Abe  Enloe  and  a  girl 
they  called  Nancy  Hanks,  who  had  at  some 
time  staid  at  Enloe's.  I  heard  nothing  more^ 
as  I  now  remember,  about  the  matter,  until  the 


44 

-year  before  the  war,  the  news  came  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  had  been  nominated  for  the  pres- 
idency, when  it  was  the  common  understand- 
ing among  the  older  people  that  Lincoln  was 
the  son  of  Abe  Enloe  by  Nancy  Hanks. 

"Not  one  of  them  had  ever  seen,  up  to  that 
time,  a  written  account  of  Lincoln.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Nancy  Hanks  lived  at  Abraham 
Enloe's.  She  became  pregnant  while  there 
by  Abraham  Enloe,  and  to  quell  a  family  dis- 
turbance Enloe  had  her  moved  to  Kentucky, 
just  as  my  father  and  mother,  and  others,  have 
time  and  again  related  in  my  hearing. 

"I  have  no  doubt  that  Abe  Enloe  was  the 
father  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

CAPTAIN  EP.  EVERETT. 

Captain  Everett  was  born  April  4,  1830,  in 
Davy  Crockett's  native  county,  Tennessee. 
He  came  to  what  was  then  Jackson,  now 
Swain  county,  in  the  late  fifties,  and  has  since 
lived  in  twelve  miles  of  the  Abe  Enloe  home- 
stead. He  was  captain  of  Company  E,  Third 


45 

Tennessee.  He  served  through  the  entire  war, 
showing  conspicuous  courage  at  First  Manassas. 
He  helped  to  organize  the  county  of  Swain,  in 
1871.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1875,  that  amended  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  State.  He  has  been  magistrate, 
mayor  of  the  town  of  Bryson  City,  and  sheriff 
of  the  county.  He  is  well  known  throughout 
the  State  as  one  of  her  best  and  brainiest 
-citizens.  He  said : 

"In  time  of  the  war,  in  conversation  with 
various  old  and  reliable  citizens  of  this  section, 
I  learned  that  Abe  Lincoln's  mother,  Nancy 
Hanks,  once  lived  in  the  family  of  Abe  Enloe 
and  was  sent  from  there  to  Kentucky,  to  be 
delivered  of  a  child.  The  cause  of  her  removal 
to  Kentucky  was  a  threatened  row  between 
Abe  Enloe  and  old  Mrs.  Enloe,  his  wife.  The 
people  in  this  county — all  the  old  people  with 
whom  I  talked — were  familiar  with  the  girl  as 
Nancy  Hanks.  This  subject  was  not  only  the 
common  country  rumor,  but  I  saw  it  similarly 


46 

rehearsed  in  the  local  newspapers  of  the  time- 
I  have  no  doubt  of  its  truth." 

CAPTAIN  JAME£  W.  TERRELL. 

Captain  Terrell  was  born  in  Rutherford 
county,  N.  C.,  the  last  day  of  the  year  1829. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  came  to  Hay  wood, 
where  he  lived  with  his  grandfather,  Wm.  D. 
Kirkpatrick,  until  1852,  when  he  joined  him- 
self in  business  with  Col.  Wm.  H.  Thomas,  a 
man  of  great  shrewdness  and  enterprise.  In 
1854  he  was  made  disbursing  agent  to  the 
North  Carolina  Cherokees.  In  1862  he  en- 
listed in  the  Confederate  service  as  lieutenant 
in  a  company  of  Cherokee  Indians.  Later  he- 
was  promoted.  Since  the  war  he  has  mer- 
chandised and  been  a  railroad  contractor.  He 
has  represented  his  county  in  the  legislature 
and  filled  other  offices  of  trust  and  honor.  He 
is  recognized  throughout  Western  North  Car- 
olina as  a  most  excellent  and  useful  citizen.. 
He  said: 


47 

^ 

"Having  personally  had  some  hints  from 
the  Enloes,  of  Jackson  and  Swain,  with  whom 
I  am  intimately  acquainted,  my  attention  was 
seriously  drawn  to  the  subject  by  an  article 
which  appeared  in  Bledsoe's  Review,  in  which 
the  writer  gives  an  account  of  a  difficulty  be- 
tween Mr.  Lincoln's  reputed  father  and  a  man 
named  Enloe. 

"I  then  began  to  inquire  into  the  matter 
and  had  no  difficulty  in  arriving  at  the  follow- 
ing indisputable  facts,  for  which  I  am  indebted 
to  the  following  old  people :  The  late  Dr.  John 
Mingus,  son-in-law  to  Abraham  Enloe;  his 
widow  Mrs.  Polly  Mingus,  daughter  of  Abra- 
ham Enloe  (lately  deceased),  and  their  son 
Abram  Mingus,  who  still  lives ;  also  to  the 
late  William  Farley  and  the  late  Hon.  William 
H.  Thomas,  besides  many  other  very  old 
people,  all  of  whom,  I  believe,  are  now  dead. 

"  ist.  Some  time  about  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  a  young  orphan  girl  was  em- 
ployed in  the  family  of  Abram  Enloe,  then 


43 

of  Rutherford  county,  N.  C.  Her  position  in 
the  family  was  nearly  that  of  member,  she 
being  an  orphan  with  no  relatives  that  she 
knew.  Her  name  was  undoubtedly  Nancy 
Hanks.  Abram  Enloe  moved  about  the  year 
1805  from  Rutherford,  stopping  first  for  a 
short  while  on  Soco  creek,  but  eventually  set- 
tled on  the  Ocona  Lufta,  where  his  son,  Wesley 
M.  Enloe,  now  resides,  then  Buncombe,  after- 
ward Haywood,  later  Jackson  and  now  Swain 
county. 

"  2d.  Some  time  after  settling  on  the  Ocona 
Lufta  Miss  Hanks  became  enceinte,  and  a 
family  breeze  resulted  and  Nancy  Hanks  was 
sent  to  Kentucky. 

"  3d.  She  was  accompanied  to  Kentucky  by 
or  through  the  instrumentality  of  Hon.  Felix 
Walker,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from  the 
'Buncombe  district.' 

"There  is  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  these 
statements.  They  were  all  of  them  well 
known  to  a  generation  just  passed  away,  and 


49 

with  many  of  whom  I  was  well  and  intimately 
acquainted.  The  following  I  give  as  it  came 
to  me: 

"A  probable  reason  for  sending  the  girl 
Nancy  Hanks  to  Kentucky  was  that  at  that 
time  some  of  the  Enloe  kindred  were  living 
there.  I  wa's  informed  that  a  report  reached 
here  that  she  was  married  soon  after  reaching 
Kentucky. 

"Mrs.  Abram  Enloe's  maiden  name  was 
Egerton,  and  she  was  a  native  of  Rutherford 
county.  Some  years  ago,  meetingf  with  Dr. 
Egerton,  of  Hendersonville,  and  finding  that 
lie  was  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Enloe,  our  conversa- 
tion drifted  toward  the  Enloe  family,  and  he 
imparted  to  me  the  following: 

"Some  time  in  the  early  fifties  two  young 
men  of  Rutherford  county  moved  to  Illinois 
and  settled  in  or  near  Springfield.  One  of 
them,  whose  name  was  Davis,  became  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  the 
fall  of  1860,  just  before  the  presidential  elec- 


5° 

tion,  Mr.  Davis  and  his  friend  paid  a  visit  back 
to  Rutherford  and  spent. a  night  with  Dr. 
Egerton.  Of  course  the  presidential  candi- 
dates would  be  discussed.  Mr.  Davis  told  Dr. 
Egerton  that  in  a  private  and  confidential  talk 
which  he  had  with  Mr.  Lincoln  the  latter  told 
him  that  he  was  of  Southern  extraction,  that 
his  right  name  was,  or  ought  to  have  been^ 
Enloe,  but  that  he  had  always  gone  by  the 
name  of  his  stepfather. 

"Mr.  Enloe's  Christian  name  was  Abram, 
and  if  Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  son  he  was  not  un- 
likely named  for  him. 

"About  the  time  of  the  famous  contest  be- 
tween Lincoln  and  Stephen  A.  Douglass,  Hon. 
Wm.  H.  Seward  franked  to  me  a  speech  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's,  made  in  that  campaign,  en- 
titled: 'Speech  of  Hon.  Abram  Lincoln.'  He 
himself  invariably  signed  his  name  'A.  Lin- 
coln.' 

"To  my  mind,  taking  into  consideration  the 
unquestioned  fact  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  an 


5' 

inmate  of  Abram  Enloe's  family,  that  while 
there  she  became  pregnant,  that  she  went  to 
Kentucky  and  there  married  an  obscure  man 
named  Lincoln,  the  story  is  highly  probable 
indeed,  and  when  fortified  with  the  wonderful 
likeness  between  Wesley  M.  Enloe,  legitimate 
son  of  Abram  Enloe,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  can- 
not resist  the  conviction  that  they  are  sons  of 
the  same  sire.  A  photo  of  either  might  be 
passed  on  the  family  of  the  other  as  their  gen- 
uine head." 

HON.  WM.  A.  DILLS. 

Mr.  Dills  is  a  native  'of  Jackson  county, 
N.  C.,  and  resides  in  the  thriving  little  town 
which  was  named  in  his  honor — Dillsboro.  He 
is  an  intelligent,  progressive  citizen.  His 
people  have  honored  him  with  place  and  power. 
He  has  represented  his  county  in  the  lower 
house  of  the  legislature.  He  said : 

"My  information  with  regard  to  the  subject, 
so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned,  is  tradi- 


52 

tional,  as   the   events   named   occurred   long- 
before  I  was  born. 

"Several  years  ago,  while  I  was  teaching 
school  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  I  read  a  sketch 
of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which  ran  as 
follows :  '  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  the 
State  of  Kentucky,  of  a  woman  whose  name 
was  Nancy  Savage  or  Nancy  Hanks.  His 
father  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Enloe.  When  the  boy  was  eight 
years  old  his  mother  married  an  old  man  by 
the  name  of  Lincoln,  whose  profession  was 
rail-splitting.  Soon  after  the  marriage  he  took 
a  large  contract  of  splitting  rails  in  the  State 
of  Illinois,  where  he  took  the  boy  and  his 
mother,  and  the  boy  assumed  the  name  of 
Lincoln.'  The  above  is  a  verbatim  quotation 
of  the  sketch  that  far. 

"On  my  return  from  Missouri  I  took  occa- 
sion to  investigate  the  old  tradition  to  my  own 
satisfaction.  I  found  that  Nancy  Hanks  once 
lived  with  Abraham  Enloe,  in  the  county  of 


53 

Buncombe  (now  Swain),  and  while  there  be- 
came involved  with  Enloe ;  a  child  was  immi- 
nent, if  it  had  not  been  born,  and  Nancy 
Hanks  was  conveyed  to  Kentucky. 

"The  public  may  read  in  Wesley  M.  Enloe, 
son  of  Abraham  Enloe,  a  walking  epistle  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  If  there  is  any  reliance  to 
be  placed  in  tradition  of  the  strongest  class 
they  are  half-brothers.  I  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  the  tradition  is  true. 

"  For  further  information,  I  refer  you  to  Col. 
Allen  T.  Davidson,  of  Asheville." 
JOSEPH  A.  COLLINS. 

Mr.  Collins  is  fifty-six  years  of  age  and  resides 
in  the  town  of  Clyde,  in  Haywood  county.  He 
served  three  years  of  the  war  between  the 
States  as  a  private,  after  which  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  second  lieutenancy  of  his  com- 
pany, in  which  capacity  he  continued  until 
the  surrender.  He  has  been  in  the  mercantile 
business  for  twenty-five  years,  ten  years  of 
which  he  was  a  travel  i  112:  salesman.  He  is 


54 

now  proprietor  of  a  hardware  store  in  his  home 
town.  He  is  well  known  over  the  entire  wes- 
tern part  of  the  State  as  a  gentleman  of  the 
most  unquestionable  integrity.  He  said : 

"The  first  I  knew  of  any  tradition  being 
connected  with  Abraham  Lincoln's  origin  on 
his  father's  side  was  in  1867.  At  that  time  I 
was  in  Texas,  and  while  there  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Judge  Gilmore,  an  old  gentle- 
man who  lived  three  miles  from  Fort  Worth. 

"He  told  me  he  knew  Nancy  Hanks  before 
she  was  married,  and  that  she  then  had  a  child 
she  called  Abraham.  '  While  the  child  was  yet 
small,'  said  Judge  Gilmore,  'she  married-  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Lincoln,  a  whisky  distiller. 
*  Lincoln,'  he  said,  '  was  a  very  poor  man,  and 
they  lived  in  a  small  log  house.' 

"  'After  Nancy  Hanks  was  married  to  the  man 
Lincoln,'  said  Gilmore,  'the  boy  was  known  by 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  said  that 
Abraham's  mother,  when  the  boy  was  about 
eight  years  old,  died.' 


55 

"Judge  Gilmore  said  he  himself  was  five  or 
six  years  older  than  Abraham  Lincoln ;  that 
he  knew  him  well ;  attended  the  same  school 
with  him.  He  said  Lincoln  was  a  bright  boy 
and  learned  very  rapidly ;  was  the  best  boy  to 
work  he  had  ever  known. 

"  He  said  he  knew  Lincoln  until  he  was  al- 
most grown,  when  he,  Gilmore,  moved  to 
Texas.  During  his  residence  in  Texas  he  was 
elected  judge  of  the  county  court  He  was 
an  intelligent,  responsible  man. 

"  Years  ago  I  was  traveling  for  a  house  in 
Knoxville.  On  Turkey  creek,  in  Buncombe 
county,  N.  C.,  I  met  an  old  gentleman  whose 
name  was  Phillis  Wells.  He  told  me  that  he 
knew  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of  Abra- 
ham Enloe,  who  lived  on  Ocona  Lufta. 

"  Wells  said  he  was  then  ninety  years  of  age. 
When  he  was  a  young  man  he  traveled  over 
the  country  and  sold  tinware  and  bought  furs, 
feathers,  and  ginseng  for  William  Johnston,  of 
Waynesville.  He  said  he  often  stopped  with 


56 

Abraham  Enloe.  On  one  occasion  he  called 
to  stay  over  night,  as  was  his  custom,  when 
Abraham  Enloe  came  out  and  went  with  him 
to  the  barn  to  put  up  his  horse,  and  while  there 
Enloe  said : 

"'My  wife  is  mad;  about  to  tear  up  the 
place ;  she  has  not  spoken  to  me  in  two  weeks, 
and  I  wanted  to  tell  you  about  it  before  you 
went  in  the  house.'  Then,  remarked  Wells: 
'I  said  what  is  the  matter?'  and  Abrah'am 
Enloe  replied:  'The  trouble  is  about  Nancy 
Hanks,  a  hired  girl  we  have  living  with  us/ 
Wells  said  he  staid  all  night,  and  that  Mrs. 
Enloe  did  not  speak  to  her  husband  while  he 
was  there.  He  said  he  saw  Nancy  Hanks 
there ;  that  sli£  was  a  good-looking  girl,  and 
seemed  to  be  smart  for  business. 

"  Wells  said  before  he  got  back  there  on  his 
next  trip  that  Abraham  Enloe  had  sent  Nancy 
Hanks  to  Jonathan's  creek  and  hired  a  family 
there  to  take  care  of  her ;  that  later  a  child 
was  born  to  Nancy  Hanks,  and  she  named 
him  Abraham. 


57 

"Meantime  the  trouble  in  Abraham  Enloe's 
family  had  not  abated.  As  soon  as  Nancy 
Hanks  was  able  to  travel,  Abraham  Enloe 
hired  a  man  to  take  her  and  her  child  out  of 
the  country,  in  order  to  restore  quiet  and  peace 
at  home.  He  said  he  sent  her  to  some  of  his 
relatives  near  the  State  line  between  Tennes- 
see and  Kentucky.  He  said  Nancy  and  the 
child  were  cared  for  by  Enloe's  relatives  until 
she  married  a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Lincoln. 

"  I  asked  the  old  gentleman  if  he  really 
believed  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of 
Abraham  Enloe,  and  he  replied  :  '  I  know  it, 
and  if  I  did  not  know  it  I  would  not  tell  it/ 

"  I  made  special  inquiry  about  the  character 
of  Wells,  and  every  one  said  that  he  was  an 
honest  and  truthful  man  and  a  good  citizen." 

H.  J.  BECK. 

Mr.  Beck  was  born  and  reared  and  has  all 
his  life  lived  on  Ocona  Lufta.  He  was  one  of 
Abraham  Enloe's  neighbors,  as  was  his  father 
before  him.  He  is  now  an  octogenarian.  He 


is  well-to-do,  intelligent  and  of  upright  char- 
acter.    He  said  : 

"  I  have  heard  my  father  and  mother  often 
speak  of  the  episode  of  Abraham  Enloe  and 
Nancy  Hanks.  They  said  Abraham  Enloe 
moved  from  Rutherford  county  here,  bringing 
with  his  family  a  hired  girl  named  Nancy 
Hanks.  Some  time  after  they  settled  here 
Nancy  Hanks  was  found  to  be  with  child, 
and  Enloe  procured  Hon.  Felix  Walker  to 
take  her  away.  Walker  was  gone  two  or 
three  weeks.  If  they  told  where  he  took  her  I 
do  not  now  think  of  the  place. 

"As  to  Abraham  Enloe,  he  was  a  very  large 
man,  weighing  between  two  and  three  hundred. 
He  was  justice  of  the  peace.  The  first  I  re- 
member of  him,  I  was  before  him  in  trials. 
In  these  cases,  of  difference  between  neighbors, 
he  was  always  for  peace  and  compromise.  If 
an  amicable  adjustment  could  not  be  effected 
he  was  firm  and  unyielding.  '  He  was  an  ex- 
cellent business  man." 


59 

D.  K.  COLLINS. 

Mr.  Collins  was  born  October  8,  1844.  He 
was  a  Lieutenant  of  Sharpshooters,  Company 
F,  69th  N.  C.  Regiment.  He  is  the  most  ex- 
tensive dry-goods  merchant  in  the  State  west 
of  Asheville.  He  is  an  excellent  citizen  and 
cultured  gentleman.  He  said  : 

"The  tradition  is  well-founded.  I  have  been 
in  position  to  note  its  bearings,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Nancy  Hanks  lived  at  Abraham 
Enloe's,  and  that  the  event  took  place  sub- 
stantially as  related  by  the  men  and  women 
who  were  familiar  with  it." 

CAPT.  WM.  A.  ENLOE. 

Captain  Enloe  was  born  in  Hay  wood  (now 
Jackson)  county,  and  is  sixty-six  years  of  age. 
He  is  a  successful  merchant  and  business  man. 
He  is  a  gentleman  of  superior  sense,  modesty, 
firmness  and  integrity.  He  was  Captain  of 
Company  F,  29th  N.  C.  Regiment,  commanded 
by  Robt.  B.  Vance,  and  served  through  the 
war.  He  has  represented  his  county  in  the 


6o 

General  Assembly.  He  is  a  grandson  of 
Abraham  Enloe.  He  said  : 

"There  is  a  tradition  come  down  through 
the  family  that  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of 
President  Lincoln,  once  lived  at  my  grand- 
father's, and  while  there  became  the  mother 
of  a  child  said  to  be  my  grandfather  Abraham 
Enloe's. 

One  Mr.  Thompson  married  my  aunt  Nancy, 
daughter  of  Abraham  Enloe,  contrary  to  the 
will  of  my  grandfather  ;  to  conceal  the  matter 
from  my  grandfather's  knowledge,  Thompson 
stole  her  away  and  went  to  Kentucky ;  on  the 
trip  they  were  married.  Hearing  of  their 
marriage,  my  grandfather  reflected  and  de- 
cided to  invite  them  back  home.  On  their 
return  they  were  informed  of  the  tumult  in  my 
grandfather's  household  because  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  who  had  given  birth  to  a  child ;  and 
when  my  uncle  and  aunt,  Thompson  and  wife, 
returned  to  their  Kentucky  home,  they  took 
with  them  Nancy  Hanks  and  her  child.  This 


6i 

is  the  family  story  as  near  as  I  can  reproduce 
it  from  memory. 

"In  1 86 1 1  came  home  from  Raleigh  to  recruit 
my  company.  On  my  return,  while  waiting 
for  the  stage  in  Asheville,  I  took  dinner  at  what 
was  then  the  Carolina  House.  The  table  was 
filled  largely  with  •  officers  going  to  and  from 
their  various  commands.  The  topic  of  con- 
versation seemed  to  be  Abraham  Lincoln. 
One  of  the  gentlemen  remarked  that  Lincoln 
was  not  the  correct  name  of  the  President — 
that  his  name  was  Enloe  and  that  his  father 
lived  in  Western  North  Carolina.  I  main- 
tained the  part  of  an  interested  listener,  and 
no  one  suspected  that  my  name  was  Enloe. 

"After  this,  during  the  war,  and  while  sta- 
tioned in  East  Tennessee,  I  was  handed  a  paper 
with  nearly  a  column  of  what  purported  to  be 
a  sketch  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  early  life  in 
Kentucky — alleging  that  his  father's  name 
was  Enloe,  and  that  he  (Lincoln)  was  born  in 
Western  North  Carolina." 


62 

WESLEY  M.  ENLOE. 

Mr.  Enloe  was  born  1811,  in  Haywood 
county,  N.  C.,  and  is  the  ninth  and  only  sur- 
viving son  of  Abraham  Enloe.  He  resides  on 
the  same  farm  and  in  the  same  house  in  which 
his  father  lived  when  Nancy  Hanks  was  ban- 
ished from  the  household.  He  is  a  quiet, 
suave,  intelligent  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
and  a  prosperous  farmer.  He-  said  : 

"  I  was  born  after  the  incident  between 
father  and  Nancy  Hanks.  I  have,  however,  a 
vivid  recollection  of  hearing  the  name  Nancy 
Hanks  frequently  mentioned  in  the  family 
while  I  was  a  boy.  No,  I  never  heard  my 
father  mention  it ;  he  was  always  silent  on  the 
subject  so  far  as  I  know. 

"Nancy  Hanks  lived  in  my  father's  family. 
I  have  no  doubt  the  cause  of  my  father's  send- 
ing her  to  Kentucky  is  the  one  generally 
alleged.  The  occurrence  as  understood  by  my 
generation  and  given  to  them  by  that  of  my 
father,  I  have  no  doubt  is  essentially  true. 


WESLEY  M.  ENLOE. 

Traditional  Half-brother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  at  the 
Age  of  88. 


63 

"My  father  moved  to  this  place  (Ocona 
Lufta)  somewhere  from  1803  to  1808." 

A  NEWSPAPER  ARTICLE. 

It  has  been  our  steady  resolve  to  admit  noth- 
ing in  these  memoirs  over  a  fictitious  or  anony- 
mous signature.  But  as  all  the  newspaper 
articles  on  the  subject  available  are  thus 
signed,  we  determined  to  depart  from  our  rule 
and  give  the  full  text  of  a  correspondence  in 
the  Charlotte  Observer 'of  September  lyth,  1893. 

The  Observer  is  one  of  the  foremost  public 
prints  of  the  south.  It  is  edited  by  Colonel 
Joseph  P.  Caldwell,  a  distinguished  member 
of  an  old,  distinguished  family,  and  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  journalists  in  the  country. 

And  if  we  have  been  rightly  informed,  the 
writer,  who  signs  himself  "  Student  of  His- 
tory," is  a  worthy  member  of  another  and  il- 
lustrious North  Carolina  family. 

To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  OBSERVER  : — My 
attention  has  been  called  to  the  communication 
in  last  Sunday's  edition  on  Abraham  Lincoln's 


64 

ancestry.  The  communication  and  your  inter- 
esting editorial  called  to  mind  a  true  story  in 
the  life  of  one  of  Lincoln's  contemporaries, 
Mr.  Judah  P.  Benjamin.  It  is  not  known  to 
many  of  this  generation  that  Mr.  Benjamin, 
when  a  boy,  lived  in  Fayetteville,  N.  C.,  and 
was  a  student  in  the  academy,  in  that  city. 
His  brother  Solomon  and  his  sister  Judith, 
when  quite  small,  lived  in  the  same  town.  I 
think  it  is  true,  too,  that  a  part  of  his  boyhood 
was  spent  in  Wilmington,  N.  C.  His  family 
were  English  Hebrews,  and  he  was  born  in 
the  West  Indies.  Hon.  Warren  Winslow, 
when  in  Congress,  tried  to  remind  Mr.  Benja- 
min of  his  early  life  in  North  Carolina.  I 
lieard  him  say  he  failed  to  make  Mr.  Benja- 
min's '  memory  recollect.'  His  early  life  in 
the  United  States  began  in  North  Carolina 
and  official  life,  as  a  member  of  Mr.  Davis's 
cabinet,  ended  in  Greensboro,  N.  C.,  or  Char- 
lotte, in  the  same  State.  He  separated  from 
Mr.  Davis  the  morning  after  he  left  Washing- 


65 

ton,  Ga.  He  was  Lincoln's  junior  by  two 
years.  Your  correspondent  connects  Lincoln's 
life  with  North  Carolina. 

A  few  years  since,  probably  in  1889,  the 
writer  of  this  communication  was  informed  by 
Dr.  A.  W.  Miller  that  he  heard  in  Western 
North  Carolina  that  there  was  a  tradition  in 
-Swain  county  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
born  in  that  county.  That  his  father's  name 
was  Abram  Enloe,  and  the  name  of  his  mother 
was  Nancy  Hanks.  That  the  house  in  which 
lie  was  born  was  at  that  time  occupied  by 
Wesley  Enloe,  a  son  of  Abram  Enloe,  and, 
•ergo,  the  half-brother  of  the  great  president. 

In  1890,  being  in  Webster,  Jackson  county, 
I  met  a  gentleman  who  was  county  surveyor 
-of  Jackson,  who  gave  me  the  story  related  by 
Dr.  Miller,  and  added  facts  in  the  tradition. 
The  story  as  related  to  the  doctor  was,  that 
;Nancy  Hanks  and  Abram  were  carried  to 
Kentucky  by  a  mule-drover  who  was  in  the 
3iabit  of '  stopping  at  Abram  Enloe's,  at  the 


66 

foot  of  the   Smoky  mountains,   about    iSo/j-- 
The   surveyor's  information   was  that   Felix 
Walker,  the  congressional  representative — the 
author  of  the  famous  expression  'speaking  for 
Buncombe ' — in  order  to  do  his  constituent 
"  Abram "   a   good  turn,   carried  Hagar   and 
Ishmael    to  Hardin  county,   Kentucky.     lie 
stated  also  that  two  citizens,  Davis  by  name,, 
lodged  one  night   at  his  friend's   house  and 
stated  that  they  lived  in  Illinois,  and  had  emi- 
grated to  that  State  from    Rutherford  county, 
N.  C.     These  gentlemen  stated  that  Abraham . 
Lincoln  was  acquainted  with   them,  and  on 
learning   they  were  from    Rutherford  county, 
told  them  his  mother  had  frequently  told  him 
she  had  lived  in  that  county.     These  gentle- 
men   informed    their    host   (Dr.    Egerton   of 
Hendersonville,  I  think)  that  Abram  Lincoln, 
was  one  of  the  big  men  of  the  great  west,  from 
which  they  had  hailed.     This  incident  hap- 
pened about  1858. 

The    following    week    the   writer '  was   in. 
Bryson  City. 


67 

Dr.  Miller  was  under  the  impression  that 
^Wesley  Enloe  was  a  facsimile  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  or  certain  members  of  the  Enloe 
family  were  very  similar  in  features  to 
him.  The  Jackson  surveyor  had  excited  my 
curiosity,  and,  having  a  day  off,  I  lost  no 
time,  and  was  soon  on  my  route  up  the 
Tuckaseegee,  bound  for  the  Abram  Enloe 
homestead,  just  fourteen  miles  from  Bryson 
City.  The  road  was  rocky,  and  my  driver 
was  of  the  silent  kind,  so  I  gave  my  attention 
to  the  shaping  of  my  interview  on  what 
loomed  up  to  me  as  a  very  difficult  subject  to 
handle.  A  silence  of  five  miles  was  suddenly 
interrupted  by  the  driver's  inquiry  as  to  my 
business  with  Mr.  Wesley  Enloe.  I  replied 
promptly,  "  I  am  going  up  principally  to  look 
.at  him."  This  answer  left  me  to  my  own 
reflections  and  the  scenery  of  the  Ocoua  Lufta, 
,a  branch  of  the  Tuckaseegee,  which  is  beauti- 
ful beyond  description.  The  native  Indian 
: sunned  himself  along  the  roadside,  or  paddled 


68 

his  smooth  canoe  under  the  overhanging; 
Rhododendron.  Suddenly  the  driver,  over- 
burdened with  curiosity,  at  the  ninth  mile- 
stone, interrupted  me  with  the  question,. 
"Would  I  mind  telling  what  I  wanted  to  look 
at  Wesley  Enloe  for  ?  "  "  Not  at  all ;  I  have 
heard  he  resembles  Abram  Lincoln,  and  that 
he  is  his  half-brother."  The  driver  then  be- 
came satisfied  and  talkative.  He  stated  he 
had  heard  the  story  frequently,  and  was  a 
relative  of  the  Enloe  family  himself. 

Passing  Yellow  Hill,  the  Indian  school  sup- 
ported by  the  government,  a  down-grade  of 
three  or  four  miles  brought  us  to  a  beautiful,, 
rich  valley  farm,  the  present  home  of  Wesley,, 
and  the  old  Abraham  Enloe  homestead.  The 
house  was  not  unlike  many  of  the  old  houses - 
in  North  Carolina — one  story,  the  roof  sloping, 
down  over  the  piazza,  with  the  company-room 
opening  on  the  porch.  Mr.  Enloe  and  his- 
wife  were  seated  in  front,  a  picture  of  undis- 
turbed contentment  and  rural  happiness*. 


MRS.  JULIA  ENLOE  BIRD. 

Daughter  of  Wesley  Enloe  and  therefore  Niece  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


69 

The  driver  carried  his  team  to  the  barn,  and 
Mrs.  Enloe  retired  to  look  after  the  dinner. 

Mr.  Enloe  was  about  six  feet,  two  or  three 
inches  tall,  and,  to  my  great  disappointment, 
bald-headed  ;  his  right  shoulder  a  little  lower 
than  his  left ;  when  standing,  just  slightly 
stooped  forward.  Our  conversation  took  a 
varied  turn — the  force  bill,  the  Alliance,  crops, 
walnut  rails,  etc.  I  inquired  finally  if  he  had  a 
picture  of  himself  before  he  lost  his  hair. 
His  daughter  Julia,  about  nineteen  years  old, 
was  summoned  and  brought  a  basketful  of 
photographs.  My  attention  was  taken  at 
once  by  the  striking  resemblance  between 
Julia  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  picture 
with  a  full  head  of  hair  failed  to  satisfy  me 
of  a  striking  face  resemblance  between  Wes- 
ley Enloe  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  pho- 
tograph was  taken  the  year  Lincoln  was 
killed,  in  Waynesville,  to  which  place  Mr. 
Enloe  had  carried  a  drove  of  beef-cattle  the 
summer  of  1865. 


7° 

Mr.  Enloe  stated  that  he  had  never  heard 
his  father's  name  mentioned  in  his  family  in 
connection  with  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  said : 
"  I  was  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  sixteen. 
Such  might  have  been  the  fact,  but  of  course 
the  older  ones  would  not  be  apt  to  talk  to  me 
on  a  subject  like  that  .to  which  you  allude. 
About  1871,  say  ten  years  ago,  I  learned  and 
heard  the  story  read  from  an  Asheville  paper 
for  the  first  time." 

The  subject  was  dropped  until  four,  when 
I  started  for  home.  I  remarked,  after  thanking 
him  for  his  hospitality,  that  I  was  perhaps  the 
only  man  who  had  ever  called  just  to  look  at 
him.  The  old  man  was  without  his  coat,  with 
wool  hat,  narrow  brim.  He  replied  pleasantly : 
"Now  that  you  have  seen  me,  what  do  you 
think  ?"  My  reply  was  that  I  must  confess  that  I 
was  disappointed,  but  that  now  seeing  him  with 
his  hat  on,  with  his  hands  crossed  behind  him  (a 
favorite  posture  with  Mr.  Lincoln),  taking  in  the 
whole  six  feet,  three  or  four  inches,  there  was 


71 

a  resemblance  which  I  had  no  doubt  was 
greater  twenty-five  years  past  The  resem- 
blance in  the  case  of  Miss  Julia  is  striking. 

The  old  gentleman  then  related  the  follow- 
ing incident :  "  Two  months  past,  in  Dillsboro, 
in  my  daughter's  parlor  (she  married  in  that 
town)  is  a  map  picture  of  President  Lincoln. 
She  said  to  me,  '  Look  at  that  picture.  Did 
you  ever  see  a  better  picture  of  my  brother 
Frank?'  Frank  is  my  son  and  I  have  always 
heard  he  was  much  like  my  brother  Scroup, 
who  was  said  to  be  very  like  his  father  Abra- 
ham Enloe.  I  favor  my  mother's  people.  In 
.size  I  am  like  the  Bnloes." 

I  failed  to  find  Frank  Enloe  at  home.  At 
Dillsboro,  having  a  draft  to  cash,  I  was 
informed  by  the  hotel-keeper  that  William 
Enloe  would  cash  it.  On  going  into  the  store> 
filled  with  customers,  I  recognized  William 
.Enloe  by  his  resemblance  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 

On  my  return  east,  arriving  at  Asheville  at 
3  P.M.,  I  had  dismissed  the  subject  from  my 


72 

mind,  but  resolved  to  see  Colonel  Davidson, 
the  father  of  our  late  attorney-general.  I 
found  him  at  home,  willing  to  talk.  And 
now,  Mr.  Editor,  here  is  Colonel  Davidson's 
st^ry  as  your  correspondent  remembers  it : 

"Abram  Enloe  lived  in  Rutherford  county. 
He  had  in  his  family  a  girl  named  Nancy 
Hanks,  about  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age.  He 
moved  from  Rutherford  to  Buncombe  and  set- 
tled on  a  branch  of  the  Ocona,  in  what  was 
afterwards  Haywood,  and  what  is  now  Swain 
county.  At  the  end  of  eight  years  he  moved 
to  the  house  at  the  foot  of  the  Smoky  moun- 
tain, the  place  above  described  as  the  present 
home  of  Wesley  Enloe. 

"Soon  after  Abram  moved  his  own  daughter, 
Nancy  Enloe,  against  his  wish,  ran  away  and 
married  a  Kentucky  gentleman  named  Thomp- 
son, from  Hardin  county  in  that  State. 

"In  the  meantime  during  the  absence  of  Mrs. 
Nancy  Enloe  Thompson  in  Kentucky,  at  the 
home  of  Abram  Enloe  a  son  was  born  to  Nancy 


73 

Hanks,  then  about  twenty  or  twenty-one  years- 
of  age.  The  relations  between  Mrs.  Enloe  and 
her  husband  became,  as  a  matter  of  course,, 
unpleasant. 

"There  is  a  lady  now  living,"  says  Colonel' 
Davidson,  "  who,  as  a  girl,  was  visiting  Abram 
Enloe.  This  lady  says  that  Nancy  Enloe 
Thompson,  having  become  reconciled  with  her 
parents,  had  returned  from  Kentucky  to  North 
Carolina.  They  were  to  start  to  Kentucky 
again  in  a  few  days,  and  she  remembered  hear- 
ing a  neighbor  say,  'I  am  glad  Nancy  Hanks  and 
her  boy  are  going  to  Kentucky  with  Mrs. 
Thompson.  Mrs.  Enloe  will  be  happy  again.' 

"  I  married  into  the  Enloe  family  myself.  I 
settled  Abram  Enloe's  estate,  and  have  fre- 
quently heard  this  tradition  during  my  life, 
and  have  no  doubt  of  its  truth." 

He  added  the  following  story,  which  is  sig- 
nificant : 

"  I  am  a  lawyer.  I  was  seated  in  my  office,, 
since  the  war  and  soon  after  its  close.  A  gen- 


74 

tleman  called,  introduced  himself  as  Thompson 
and  stated  he  learned  that  I  was  the  man  who 
settled  Abram  Enloe's  estate ;  that  he  was  a 
a  son  of  Nancy  Enloe  Thompson.  He  stated, 
among  other  things,  that  he  was  a  Democrat, 
and  had  been  an  Indian  agent  during  the  Lin- 
coln administration. 

"  I  asked,"  said  Col.  Davidson,  "  how  Lin- 
coln, who  was  a  Republican,  appointed  him,  a 
Democrat,  an  Indian  agent?  " 

Thompson  replied  that  Lincoln  was  under 
some  great  obligation  to  his  (Thompson's) 
mother,  and  expressed  a  desire  to  aid  her,  if 
possible,  in  some  substantial  way.  She  finally 
consented  that  he  might  do  something  for  her 
son,  and  this  is  the  way  I  got  my  appointment. 

I  have  written  this  at  your  request,  Mr.  Edi- 
tor, hoping  that  you  will  open  your  columns 
to  Col.  Davidson  and  others,  so  that  we  may 
follow  the  clues  these  people  may  furnish,  and 
thus  see  if  there  is  any  truth  in  this  interest- 
ing North  Carolina  tradition. 

STUDENT  OF  HISTORY. 


75 

On  first  blush  there  might  seem  to  be  a  dis- 
crepancy between  the  statement  of  Wesley 
Enloe  to  the  writer  of  these  testimonies  and 
the  above  correspondent,  but  there  is  none. 

He  stated  to  the  former  that  he  had  fre- 
quently heard  the  name  Nancy  Hanks  spoken 
by  other  and  older  members  of  the  family  in 
his  boyhood,  but  never  heard  his  father  men- 
tion the  name  or  episode.  He  stated  to  the 
latter  that  he  had  never  heard  Lincoln's  name 
associated  with  the  name  of  his  father  or  the 
family ;  that  he  was  the  youngest  of  his 
father's  sixteen  children,  and  they  had,  doubt- 
less, kept  the  matter  from  him  because  (such 
is  the  inference  )  of  his  juniority.  I  know  that 
Wesley  Enloe  has  taken  no  serious  thought  of 
the  matter ;  that  he  is  an  extremely  retired  and 
modest  citizen,  never,  doubtless,  having  had  a 
biography  of  Lincoln  in  his  house,  and  the  in- 
cidents herein  related  came  to  him  by  degrees, 
dawned  on  him  gradually  like  so  many  reve- 
lations. It  must  be  remembered  that  he  was 


76 

born  two  years,  according  to  history,  and  per- 
haps four  or  five  years  according  to  the  North 
•Carolina  tradition  by  some  of  the  witnesses, 
after  the  birth  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  fact  was 
recalled  by  the  older  and  knowing  ones,  by 
the  association  of  the  name  Nancy  Hanks 
with  that  of  the  great  emancipator,  and  the 
statements  of  those  who  had  been  so  fortunate 
as  to  obtain  admissions  from  Mr.  Lincoln  him- 
self, his  mother  and  their  Kentucky  neighbors. 
Again  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  En- 
loes  were  citizens  of  the  same  neighborhood 
-and  doubtless  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  from 
the  very  beginning  of  his  public  career. 

The  episode  was  a  matter  of  extraordinary 
local  notoriety  in  the  most  secret  way,  for  the 
reason,  as  explained  by  many  of  the  old  people 
who  were  familiar  with  it,  that  Abraham  En- 
loe  was  a  very  prominent  citizen  and  greatly 
respected  and  admired  by  his  neighbors  and 
fellow-citizens,  and  the  head  of  one  of  the  best 
.families  of  North  Carolina,  as  well  as  through 


77 

genuine  sympathy  for  Nancy  Hanks,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  tradition,  was  held  in  unaffected 
^steem  by  the  settlement. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Observer 
•correspondent  is  one  of  the  very  few  intelli- 
.gent  students  of  Wesley  Enloe  who,  even  at 
liis  advanced  age,  when  his  features  are  pinched 
and  sharpened  by  years  and  toil,  fails  to  see  in 
him  a  striking  facial  as  well  as  bodily  resem- 
blance to  Abraham  Lincoln. 

C.  A.  RAGIyAND,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Ragland  is  a  citizen  of  Missouri  and  a 
leading  attorney  of  the  town  of  Stockton.  He 


"In  reply  to  your  letter  to  my  wife  have  to 
say  :  About  twelve  years  ago  I  called  on  Col. 
T.  G.  C.  Davis  at  his  office  in  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
At  that  time  I  lived  in  Illinois.  Col.  Davis 
was  a  relative  of  mine,  his  mother  having  been 
a  Miss  Ragland  of  Kentucky.  Col.  Davis  was 
.also  born  in  Kentucky,  and  was  a  cousin  of 
Jeff  Davis,  President  of  the  Confederacy. 


78 

"Col.  Davis  having  once  resided  for  a  long 
while  in  Illinois,  the  conversation  naturally 
turned  upon  her  times  and  men.  He  said  he- 
was  personally  and  intimately  acquainted  with 
President  Lincoln — was  often  associated  with 
him,  as  well  as  against  him,  in  law  cases  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois ;  that  they,  as 
members  of  a  committee  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  (I  think  of  1844  or  5)  of  Illinois, 
drafted  the  most  of  the  Constitution.  He  said 
that  he  knew  the  mother  of  Lincoln  ;  that  he 
was  raised  in  the  same  neighborhood  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  that  it  was  generally  understood, 
without  question,  in  that  neighborhood,  that 
Lincoln,  the  man  that  married  the  President's 
mother,  was  not  the  father  of  the  President^ 
but  that  his  father's  name  was  Enloe. 

"These  facts  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of. 
Col.  Davis  died  about  three  years  ago,  in  Den- 
ton,  Texas." 

COL.  JOHN  D.  CAMERON. 

Col.  Cameron  was  a  native  of  North  Caro- 


79 

lina.  He  graduated  with  honor  from  the 
University,  and  was  a  man  of  deep  and  varied 
learning  and  spotless  reputation.  He  was  a 
professional  journalist ;  was  many  years  editor 
of  the  Asheville  Citizen,  a  bright  daily.  He. 
was  the  author  of  the  "  North  Carolina  Hand- 
book." The  congenial  colonel,  at  a  ripe  age> 
has  recently  passed  away.  He  wrote  : 

"I  am  glad  you  have  undertaken  the  'Lin- 
coln Mystery,'  if  such  it  can  be  styled,  for  you 
are  on  the  spot,  in  the  center  of  authority,  and 
with  the  aid  and  cooperation  of  the  relatives 
of  the  distinguished  subject  of  the  memoir. 
I  believe  all  that  I  have  heard.  Col.  A.  T. 
Davidson  is  my  reliable  informant  I  wish 
you  success  in  your  enterprise." 

As  some  of  the  foregoing  witnesses  have 
referred  to  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Thomas  and  Col. 
Allen  T.  Davidson,  we  deem  it  proper  to 
briefly  tell  who  they  are. 

Col.  Thomas  was  born  in  Buncombe  county, 
in  a  few  miles  of  the  scene  of  the  event  herein 


8o 

.  recorded,  about  the  year  1806.     He  was  be- 
reft of  his  father  at  an  early  age.     He  studied 
grammar  between  the  plow-handles,  looking 
at   his    book   at  the  end' of   each    row.     He 
acquired  large  real  estate  possessions,  and  by 
the  time  he  reached  manhood  he  amassed  a 
fortune.     He  got  into  the  good  graces  of  the 
Cherokee  chief,  Yonaguskah  ;  was  baptized  by 
the  old  chief  as  his  son  and  made  his  successor. 
He   lived    four   years    in  Washington  and 
read  the  law  of  nations  under  John  C.  Calhoun. 
He  represented  his  section  in  both  branches 
of  the  State  legislature.     He  was  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  State  in  his  day. 
Col.  Allen  T.  Davidson  is  an  aged  and  re- 
tired  lawyer  residing    in  Asheville.     In   the 
prime  of  life  he  was  one  of  the  ablest  criminal 
lawyers  in  the  State.     He  is  the  father  of  ex- 
Attorney-General   Theo.     F.    Davidson.      He 
enjoyed  a  most   intimate    acquaintance   with 
the  people  who  are  the  custodians  of  the  Lin- 
coln tradition,  and  understood  it  substantially 
as  herein  revealed. 


COL.  WM.  H.  THOMAS. 

<  Oral  or,  Politician  and  Financier— a  Brilliant  and  Versa- 
tile Genius.  Father-in-law  of  Hon.  A.  C.  Avery, 
ex-Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  A  Con- 
temporary of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  a  custodian 
of  and  a  believer  in  the  Lincoln-Enloe  Tradition. 


CHAPTER  IL 


A  COMPARATIVE  STUDY. 

The  writer  has  been  careful  to  accept  the 
•.statements  of  none  but  persons  of  the  highest 
character  relative  to  the  North  Carolina  tradi- 
tion. 

As  the  written  or  historical  account  of  L,in- 
•coln's  origin  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
tradition  transferred  to  the  printed  page,  we 
direct  the  reader  to  the  most  authentic  per- 
sonal biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  existence — 
that  of  Herndon  and  Weik — the  former  gen- 
tleman having  been  associated  with  Mr.  L,in- 
•coln  in  the  practice  of  the  law  for  more  than 
.a  quarter  of  a  century.  In  various  instances 
Mr.  Herndon  admits  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  origin, 
.so  far  as  he  had  been  able  to  trace  it,  was 
•enveloped  in  gloom.  He  even  admits  that 
;in  his  intimate  lifetime  association  with  Mr. 


82 

Lincoln  lie  never  knew  him  to  refer  to  his- 
ancestry  in  his  hearing  but  once,  and  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  always  painfully  reticent  on- 
the  subject. 

Mr.  Herndon  does,  however,  go  so  far  as  to 
say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  divulged  some  fact  with 
reference  to  his  ancestry  to  a  Chicago  journal- 
ist by  the  name  of  Scripps,  but  at  the  same 
time,  enjoined  secrecy,  and  that  Mr.  Scripps 
died  years  ago  without  revealing  it  to  any  one. 
All  that  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  said  to  Mr.  Hern- 
don was  a  few  words  about  his  maternity. 
Averring  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  origin  and  ances- 
try were  doubtful,  if  not  unknown,  in  one 
breath,  Mr.  Herndon,  in  the  next  breath, 
traces  his  origin  and  ancestry  on  either  side  to 
the  third  generation.  This  is  mysterious,  and 
can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the 
biographer  was  conscious  that  he  had  failed  to- 
find  the  real  source  of  his  illustrious  subject,, 
and  his  innate  honesty  sought  ventilation  in* 
these  frequent  admissions. 


83 

In  fact,  after  reading  Mr.  Herndon's  ac- 
count of  Mr.  Lincoln's  origin,  so  strong  and 
recurring  are  the  insinuations  in  that  direction, 

* 

that  one  is  lead  to  think  that  Mr.  Herndon 
himself  knew  that  Thomas  Lincoln  was  not 
the  actual  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Whether  Mr.  Herndon  knew  who  Lincoln's 
real  father  was,  it  does  not  concern  us  to  say, 
further  than  that  we  telieve  he  did  not,  and, 
therefore,  acting  the  part  of  a  close  personal 
.friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  family,  and  at 
the  same  time  endeavoring  to  be  a  true  biog- 
rapher, he  recorded  Thomas  Lincoln,  the  re- 
puted father  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  his 
father,  coupling  with  the  record  the  sugges- 
tion that  the  public  are  entitled  to  the  benefit 
-of  a  grave  doubt  as  to  its  truthfulness. 

In  Mr.  Herndon's  story,  or,  as  we  shall  here- 
-after  style  it,  the  Kentucky  tradition,  there  is 
presumptive  evidence  that  Mr.  Lincoln  knew 
who  his  father  was.  In  the  North  Carolina 
tradition  there  is  direct  and  positive  evidence 


84 

that  he  knew  who  his  father  was.  In  the- 
Kentucky  tradition  there  is  no  positive  evi- 
dence that  he  ever  revealed  who  his  father 
was.  In  the  North  Carolina  tradition  there  is- 
positive  evidence  that  he  did  reveal  who  his 
father  was. 

The  question  natttrally  arises  with  the  per- 
son who  is  not  thoroughly  familiar  with  Mr, 
Lincoln's  character,  "  Why  did  he  withhold 
from  the  world  the  truth  of  who  his  father 
was?  And  if,  in  any  case  he  imparted  this- 
knowledge,  why  was  he  choice  in  his  reposi- 
tory of  the  same  ?  Why  did  he  charge  one 
person  with  temporary  secrecy,  as  is  intimated 
in  the  case  of  Scripps,  and  to  another  person 
accompany  his  divulgence  with  no  restrictions,. 
as  is  plainly  shown  in  the  case  of  Davis? 
Why  did  he  open  this  secret  of  his  ancestry  to 
comparative  strangers  and  withhold  it  from  his 
law-partner  and  close  friend?" 

Our  answer  to  the  first  question  is,  that  be- 
fore Abraham   Lincoln  entered  public  life  he: 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Comparative  likenesses  of  Lincoln  and  Enloe,  according . 
to  this  narrative  half-brothers,  arranged  here  to  facili- 
tate the  study  of  family  resemblance  as  an  argument : 
for  the  contention  of  this  book. 


WESLEY  M.  ENLOE,  Age  81. 


85 

was  shut  up  in  the  wilderness  of  obscurity ; 
there  was  no  occasion  for  the  world  to  know 
who  his  ancestors  were  ;  but  when  he  came  be. 
fore  the  public  as  a  leader,  he  very  rapidly  de- 
veloped into  an  adroit  politician  whose  ambi- 
tion was  boundless,  and  he  sought  encourage- 
ment and  support  beyond  partizan  lines ;  there- 
fore, one  of  the  probable  reasons  why  he  main- 
tained so  studious  a  silence  on  the  question 
of  his  origin  might  have  been  the  politic  one. 
In  answer  to  the  second  question,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  man  of  the  nicest  discriminat- 
ing sense,  and  he  never  lost  an  opportunity  to 
use  this  rare  endowment  to  promote,  in  an 
honorable  way,  his  personal  interest.  He  was 
the  candidate  of  the  anti-slavery  party  for  pres- 
ident. He  told  Mr.  Scripps,  the  official  repre- 
sentative of  a  great  anti-slavery  journal,  per- 
sonally, who  his  father  was,  but  forbade  fur- 
ther publication  of  the  matter,  because  his  sa- 
gacity suggested,  for  reasons  that  are  obvious^ 
that  si'cnce,  in  that  quarter,  would  be  golden. 


86 

He  explained  to  Mr.  Davis,  who  was  not  a 
newspaper  correspondent  nor  a  politician,  but 
a  plain  citizen  and  voter,  on  the  eve  of  the  lat- 
ter's  visit  to  his  old  home  in  North  Carolina, 
that  he  was  of  southern  extraction  ;  that  his 
right  name  was  Enloe,  but  that  he  had  always 
gone  by  the  name  of  his  stepfather.  Davis 
was  going  to  the  south ;  to  a  democratic,  pro- 
slavery  State,  to  the  home  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
traditional  ancestors,  and  the  shrewd  presi- 
dential candidate  knew  that  a  little  proud 
though  quiet  reminder  by  Davis  at  the  distant 
south  could  not  possibly  impair  his  prospects 
for  success. 

In  answer  to  the  last  question,  Mr.  Lincoln 
withheld  himself,  as  to  his  origin,  from  Mr. 
Herndon,  doubtless  for  the  same  reason  that  he 
refused  to  invest  one  of  his  greatest  generals 
with  an  important  mission  on  a  certain  occasion. 

This  seeming  incongruousness  of  character 
and  conduct  in  Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  of  his 
marked  individualities.  This  will  be  better 


87 

understood,  and  we  are  quite  certain  the  read- 
er's credence  will  be  strengthened  in  the  prob- 
ability of  Mr.  Lincoln's  exercising  this  char- 
acteristic on  certain  occasions,  when  it  is 
learned  what  a  very  distinguished  authority 
has  said  of  this  very  phase  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
•character.  The  reader  may  then  see  how  easy 
it  was  for  him  to  reveal  who  his  father  was  to 
Scripps  and  Davis  and  not  even  to  Herndon 
•or  any  one  else  so  far  as  is  known. 

We  quote  from  the  biography  of  Lincoln 
by  the  great  and  learned  Dr.  Holland : 

"  The  fact  was  that  he  rarely  showed  more 
than  one  aspect  of  himself  to  one  man.  He 
opened  himself  to  men  in  different  direc- 
tions." 

The  Kentucky  tradition  has  it  that  Thomas 
Lincoln  was  married  to  Nancy  Hanks  in  1806. 
The  North  Carolina  tradition  says  that  Nancy 
Hanks  lived  in  the  home  of  Abraham  Enloe 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century — one  witness 
says  about  the  year  1 805  ;  another  says  from 


88 

about  1803  to  1808.  The  traditional  testi- 
mony establishes  the  fact  that  it  was  at  the 
dawn  of  the  century. 

Mr.  Herndon  produces  the  Lincoln  family 
record  purporting  to  have  been  taken  origi- 
nally from  the  Lincoln  family  Bible.  It  shows 
to  have  been  badly  mutilated.  The  record 
has  much  the  appearance  of  having  been 
written  consecutively  and  at  one  sitting.  It 
is  in  the  even  handwriting  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
mature,  professional  years.  It  is,  therefore, 
unknown  how  and  when  these  dates,  twenty- 
one  in  all,  covering  a  period  of  sixty-three 
years,  were  furnished.  A  plausible  way  of 
accounting  for  this  record  may  be  seen  in  this 
simple  surmise : 

Some  time  in  the  early  fifties,  certainly 
after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  reputed 
father,  for  the  latter  event  is  recorded  among 
the  last  in  the  same  handwriting,  out  of  re- 
spect for  the  people  with  whom  he  had  come 
up,  Mr.  Lincoln  paid  a  visit  to  his  step- 


89 

mother's,  in  Coles  county,  and  stepping  into  a-, 
bookstore  on  leaving  Springfield,  he  purchased! 
a  family  Bible,  containing  a  place  for  a  record, 
with  which  to  present  his  old  stepmother,  for 
whom  it  is  said  he  entertained  a  tender  feel- 
ing. This  indeed  would  have  been  a  very 
appropriate  and  touching  memento  of  the 
occasion  of  his  first  visit  after  his  reputed 
father's  death.  Then  it  was  that  the  family- 
record,  as  reproduced  by  Mr.  Herndon,  was 
penned  down  by  Mr.  Lincoln  from  his  own; 
memory  aided  by  that  of  his  stepmother.  A 
most  striking  evidence  of  the  probable  cor- 
rectness of  this  surmise  may  be  seen  in  the- 
completeness  of  the  record  of  the  members  of 
the  family  of  his  stepmother  and  the  marked 
incompleteness  of  the  records  of  Thomas 
Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's 
alleged  full  sister.  The  birth  of  neither 
Thomas  Lincoln  nor  Nancy  Hanks  is  re- 
corded. Why  the  birth  of  Mr.  Lincoln's- 
mother  is  left  out  is  a  mystery  when,  accord- 


90 

to  Mr.  Herndon,  it  must  have  been  well 
known.  He  gives  her  age,  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage  to  Thomas  Lincoln,  as  twenty-three. 

Again  the  Kentucky  tradition  has  it  that 
there  was  a  daughter  born  to  Thomas  and 
Nancy  Lincoln  in  1807,  before  Abraham, 
whom  it  records  as  first  seeing  the  light  I2th 
February,  1809.  But  there  is  a  serious  dis- 
crepancy here  which  Mr.  Lincoln's  biogra- 
phers have  not  been  able  to  reconcile. 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  the  latter  our  late  ambas- 
sador to  England  and  present  Secretary  of 
State,  both  of  whom  were  very  intimate 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  say  that  this  sister's  name 
was  Nancy  and  contend  that  such  was  her 
real  name.  Mr.  Herndon  contends  persist- 
ently that  her  name  was  Sarah  and  that  the 
family  knew  her  by  that  name.  Her  name 
appears  of  record  in  the  family  Bible  as 
Nancy.  Mr.  Herndon  surmises  that  the 
record  was  torn  away  down  to  the  word  Nancy 
.and  that  the  name  was  intended  for  that  of 


91 

the  President's  mother.  There  is  no  evidence- 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  paid  any  attention  to- 
this  alleged  sister.  There  was  another  Sarah 
in  the  family,  daughter  of  Thomas  Lincoln's- 
second  wife  by  her  first  husband.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's alleged  full  sister  is  said  not  to  have 
resembled  him  in  stature,  being  short  and 
thick-set. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  such  stolid  indiffer- 
ence and  cold  neglect  on  the  part  of  such  a_ 
man  as  Abraham  Lincoln  for  an  only  sister — 
the  nearest  relative  he  had  in  the  world.  But 
such  is  the  statement  of  his  biographer.  She 
was  only  two  years  his  senior.  At  an  early 
age  Lincoln  began  to  dream  of  his  future  ;  as 
he  grew  older  it  seems  that  he  would  certainly 
become  interested  in  this  sister,  and  like  Web- 
ster who  helped  to  educate  his  brother,  and 
Davy  Crockett  who  worked  off  his  father's 
debts,  have  striven  to  bring  her  up  to  a 
position  of  respectability  in  society  equal  with 
the  best  of  her  class ;  if  he  had  failed  im 


92 

this  ambition,  and,  as  his  biographer  intimates, 
this  failure  had  been  followed  by  her  misfor- 
tune', it  had  impressed  the  world  more  favor- 
ably and  deeply  if  his  historian  had  said 
something  like  this :  "  Throughout  her  brief 
though  sad  career,  from  childhood  to  the  grave, 
this  only  sister  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  fol- 
lowed by  him,  through  evil  as  well  as  good 
report,  with  unremitting  interest  and  tender 
.solicitude." 

It  was  not  in  Abraham  Lincoln's  humane, 
manly  heart  to  have  been  even  careless  of  the 
Avelfare  of  an  only  sister.  To  this,  as  to  his 
own  origin  as  detailed  by  his  biographer,  there 
is  attached  a  mystery.  Lincoln,  young  though 
he  was  when  his  melancholy  mother  died, 
-was  wise — he  had  been  lead,  doubtless  by  none 
other  person  save  Nancy  Hanks,  through  these 
dim  paths  into  the  light. 

A  thorough  examination  of  the  Bible  record, 
and  the  biography  by  Herndon  alongside  that 
by  Nicolay  and  Hay,  shows  plainly  that  there 


A.  LINCOLN. 
TRADITION AI,  SON  OF  ABRAM  ENLOE. 

For  the  further  development  of  this  comparative 
study. 


WESLEY  ENLOE 
AT  THE  AGE  OF  Si.    SON  OF  ABRAHAM  ENIX>E. 

The  most  striking  similarity  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
Wesley  Enloe  is  their  physical  formation  and  charac- 
teristics, which  may  be  seen  from  the  above  compara- 
tive standing  likeness. 


93 

is  something  mysterious  and  inexplicable  in 
connection  with  this  alleged  sister. 

A  painstaking  comparison  of  the  North  Car- 
olina and  Kentucky  traditions  will  show  but 
little  discord  relative  to  the  probable  date  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  birth  and  that  of  the  marriage 
of  Nancy  Hanks  and  Thomas  Lincoln.  The 
North  Carolina  tradition  does  not  pretend  to  fix 
the  date  of  Nancy  Hanks's  leaving  Abraham 
Enloe's.  It  is  no  more  definite  than  the  early, 
very  early,  years  of  the  century.  Some  of  the 
witnesses  do  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  Abraham 
Enloe  came  from  Rutherford  to  Buncombe 
about  the  year  1805,  and  that  Nancy  Hanks 
came  with  him. 

There  is  no  conflict  here  as  to  the  birth  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  or  the  marriage  of  his  mother, 
for  Abraham  Enloe's  coming  to  Western  North 
Carolina  might  have  been  a  few  years  earlier, 
as  another  competent  witness  says  about  1803. 
Mr.  Herndon  says  the  Washington  county, 
Kentucky,  records  show  that  the  marriage  took 
place  in  1806. 


94 

Passing  the  alleged  birth  of  the  whole  (?) 
sister  as  too  mysterious  to  admit  of  human 
intermeddling,  except  to  invite  the  reader  to 
investigate  for  himself,  we  pass  to  the  advent 
of  our  illustrious  subject.  The  family  record 
has  it  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 12,  1809. 

It  is  a  fact  of  history  that,  at  the  time  of  the 
marriage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  to  Nancy  Hanks 
the  former  could  neither  read  nor  write,  and 
while  it  is  intimated  that  the  latter  could  do 
both,  it  is  extremely  doubtful.  Every  whit 
of  history  and  tradition  in  regard  to  this  par- 
ticular personage  is  agreed  that  she  was, 
almost  from  her  infancy,  without  any  one  who- 
would  have  cared  a  fig  whether  she  learned 
the  alphabet.  Moreover,  it  would  have  been 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  Nancy 
Hanks  to  drift  along  in  the  woods  without  a 
thought  of  beginning  a  family  record,  even  if 
she  could  have  written,  until  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  a  decade,  perhaps,  and  the  quarrels 


95 

between  Thomas  Lincoln  and  the  Enloes, 
as  our  tradition  testifies,  coupled  with  the  ever- 
present  reminder  of  the  name,  engendered  in 
the  heart  of  Thomas  Lincoln  a  lasting  hatred. 
One  might  guess,  and  hit  it,  that  the  record 
which  should  have  read  February  I2th,  1806, 
was  made  to  read  February  i2th,  1809.  Let 
this  be  as  it  may,  there  is  no  question  as  to  the 
fact  that  this  family  record  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's birth  is  pure  matter  of  tradition.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  it  was  ever  made  matter  of 
record  in  the  family  of  Lincoln's  reputed  parents 
until  1851,  and  then  the  only  chance  to  get  it 
done  was  for  Lincoln  to  do  it  himself.  Verily, 
who  can  say  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortune? 

If  one  should  say  that,  after  reading  the 
accounts  of  the  utter  barrenness  and  misery  of 
Thomas  Lincoln's  home,  for  such  is  the  record, 
and  the  perfect  worthlessness  of  Thomas 
himself,  one  could  not  imagine  such  things  as 
pencil  and  paper,  far  less  pen  and  ink  and 


96 

family  record,  placed  there  by  Thomas's  hands, 
or  at  his  behest,  there  need  be  no  cause  for 
surprise.  Indeed,  if  the  historical  account  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  the  reputed  father  of  the 
great  president,  be  true,  it  is  exceedingly  un- 
certain whether  he  worried  over  so  small  a 
thing  as  the  advent  of  a  child  into  the  world, 
particularly  if  it  were  not  his  child.  It  is 
equally  doubtful  whether  the  poor,  sad-hearted 
Nancy  Hanks,  brooding  her  life  away  in  the 
thick  gloom  of  a  dirty  hovel,  ever  entertained 
so  delightful  a  fancy  as  that  of  possessing 
a  family  record. 

Mr.  Lincoln  himself,  according  to  his 
biographers,  accepted  the  1 2th  February,  1809, 
as  the  time  of  his  coming  into  the  world.  But 
in  this  Abraham  Lincoln,  no  doubt,  found 
himself  in  a  place  somewhat  like  that  in 
which  Zeb  Vance  once  discovered  himself. 

Vance  was  a  candidate  for  the  legislature 
from  Buncombe  and  his  competitor,  who  was 
much  his  senior,  objected,  among  other  points, 


MISS  EUZA  ENLOE. 

Daughter  of  Wesley  M.  Enloe,  and  Traditional  Niece  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


97 

to  Vance's  youthfulness.  In  his  reply  Zeb,  in 
a  very  apologetic  air,  united  with  the  most 
affected  urbanity  of  manner,  said :  "  Fellow 
citizens,  I  would  cheerfully  have  been  born 
earlier,  if  it  had  been  in  my  power,  but  my 
father  and  mother  gave  me  no  earthly  .chance 
about  the  matter.  I  humbly  beg  pardon? 
therefore,  and  will  try  and  do  better  next 
time."  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  very  little  more 
about  this  event  of  his  life  than  did  Zeb  Vance 
about  the  similar  event  of  his. 

Passing  a  great  number  of  expressions  in 
Mr.  Lincoln's  biography  by  Messrs.  Herndon 
and  Weik,  we  come  to  another  which  we 
cannot  forbear  to  notice  in  this  running  com- 
parative review  of  the  North  Carolina  and 
Kentucky  traditions. 

Mr.  Herndon  says  he  called  upon  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's stepmother  after  the  death  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  the  assassination  of  the  president. 
The  express  purpose  of  his  visit  was  to  obtain 
data  for  his  prospective  biography  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. Of  course  the  very  first  thing  he  did 


98 

was  to  endeavor  to  find  out  all  he  could  about 
Mr.  Lincoln's  parents.  This  old  lady  was 
very  communicative  until  Mr.  Herndon  came 
to  Nancy  Hanks,  the  '  president's  mother,  and 
her  predecessor  in  the  Lincoln  household,  and 
here  she  was  mournfully  mum.  What  was 
there  associated  with  the  inoffensive  name  of 
Nancy  that  caused  this  old  lady  to  exercise 
such  significant  reticence?  We  say  inoffensive 
name,  because  the  president's  mother  had  been 
dead  forty-six  years,  and  could  not  come  near 
the  second  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Could  it  possibly 
have  been  a  false  sense  of  virtue  or  a  deeply 
respectful  regard  for  Abraham  Lincoln,  or 
something  less  exemplary  in  this  old  lady  that 
caused  her  to  withold  her  knowledge  of  Nancy 
Hanks  which  was  undoubtedly  extensive  and 
valuable,  from  Lincoln's  historian?  Could  it 
have  been  that  this  successor  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  who,  in  her  early  life,  had  lived  in 
the  same  neighborhood  in  Kentucky  in  which 
it  occurred,  and  who,  before  that,  had  been  Tom 
Lincoln's  sweetheart,  was  perfectly  familiar 


99 

•with  the  event  herein  related  by  three  genera- 
tions of  as  good  people  as  North  Carolina 
affords?  What  was  there  about  Nancy 
Hanks's  life  that  she  needs  must  decline  to  talk 
about  or  to  impart  to  one  who  is  entitled  to  all 
the  facts?  Here  is  another  unsolved  and 
unsolvable  mystery,  should  it  devolve  upon  the 
Kentucky  tradition  to  do  the  solving.  We 
leave  it  to  the  reader  to  say  whether  the  North 
Carolina  tradition  furnishes  the  key  to  it. 

The  Kentucky  tradition  verifies  ours  when 
it  says  that  at  a  very  early  age  Nancy  Hanks 
was  taken  from  her  mother  and  sent  to  live 
with  some  of  her  worthless  relatives.  Nancy 
Hanks  herself,  according  to  the  biographer, 
-was  a  spurious  child,  and  doubtless  never 
saw  her  father,  and,  being  forced  from  her 
mother  at  a  very  early  age,  virtually  became 
an  orphan.  The  North  Carolina  tradition  says 
she  was  an  orphan  girl.  In  the  face  of  this 
fact  one  can  see  how  probable  it  is  that  Nancy 
Hanks,  at  a  very  tender  age  for  one  of  her  sex, 


100 

rambled  into  the  world,  and  just  as  she  was 
passing  into  young  womanhood  made  her 
way  to  North  Carolina  and  at  last  into  the 
home  of  Abraham  Enloe. 

Was  there  any  particular  and  plausible  rea- 
son why  she  should  have  drifted  toward  North 
Carolina  and  the  house  of  Abraham  Enloe? 
At  that  early  time  there  was  a  steady  stream 
of  emigrants,  travelers,  horse-drovers  and  vis- 
itors flowing  back  and  forth  between  Western 
North  Carolina  and  Kentucky.  It  was  an 
easy  thing  for  a  person  to  obtain  company  and 
means  of  transportation,  by  watching  the 
chances,  from  one  of  these  sections  to  the  other. 
The  special  reason  why  Nancy  Hanks  might 
have  made  Abraham  Enloe's  home,  in  particu- 
lar, her  destination  might  have  been  the  fact 
that  members  of  the  Enloe  family  lived  at  that 
time  in  Kentucky,  and  in  her  immediate  circle 
of  acquaintance. 

Realizing  that  she  was  alone  in  the  world, 
Nancy  Hanks  decided  to  seek  a  new  home 


ROBERT  WALKER  ENLOE. 

Fon  of  Wesley  Enlce  and  Traditional  Nephew  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  Compare  this  likeness  with  the  Frontis- 
piece in  Herndon's  Lincoln,  2d  Vol. 


101 

among  strangers  away  from  the  touch  of  her 
worthless  relatives,  and  begin  the  battle  of  life 
anew  and  on  her  own  responsibility.  Making 
known  her  resolve  to  some  of  the  Kentucky 
Enloes,  or  having  it  suggested  to  her  by  some 
of  them,  she  was  accordingly  directed  to  the 
Kentucky  Enloes'  North  Carolina  kinsman; 
and  seeking  and  availing  herself  of  the  first 
opportunity,  Nancy  put  her  resolution  into  ef- 
fect, and  soon  found  herself  in  the  respectable 
and  happy  home  of  Abraham  Enloe,  of  Ruth- 
erford first  and  afterward  Buncombe  county, 
North  Carolina.  That  she  lived  in  his  Bun- 
combe home  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  doubt. 

That  the  Enloes  lived  among  the  Hankses 
and  Lincolns  in  Kentucky,  both  traditions  are 
agreed  and  positive. 

According  to  the  biographical  description, 
Abraham  Lincoln  did  no  more  resemble 
Thomas  Lincoln,  his  reputed  father,  than  did 
the  rankest  stranger,  either  physically  or  in- 
tellectually. The  only  prominent  character- 


102 

istics  which  he  inherited  from  Nancy  Hanks 
were  his  slender  form  and  melancholy  temper- 
ament. This  melancholy  itself  in  Lincoln 
and  his  mother  may  be  accounted  for  in  the 
unhappy  step  the  latter  was  lead  to  take  in  the 
Carolina  mountains. 

We  recommend  to  the  reader  a  serious  paral- 
lel study  of  these  two  traditions.  The  subject 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  paternal  origin  has  engaged 
the  time  and  attention  of  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  of  our  country,  and,  in  every 
instance  the  result  of  their  investigations, 
owing  to  their  never  having  gotten  hold  of  the 
true  thread  of  his  beginning,  has  only  been  to 
elicit  increased  wonder  and  speculation — won- 
•der  because  of  the  seemingly  impenetrable 
mystery  that  settled  about  so  tall  a  figure  in 
our  history.  Even  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
world's  example  of  lowliness,  had  the  author- 
ity of  heaven  for  his  paternal  origin  and  an  in- 
telligent carpenter  for  his  earthly  ward,  but  if 
\ve  are  to  accept  the  story  of  Lincoln's  pater- 


103 

nal   ancestor,   as  told   by  his  biographers,   he 
had  neither. 

But  if  we  shall  believe  the  disinterested  ac- 
counts of  as  honorable  and  trustworthy  citizens 
as  North  Carolina  contains,  handed  down  to 
them  by  as  good  men  and  women  as  the  early 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  produced,  some 
of  the  mist  will  hereafter  not  hover  around  the 
true  paternal  origin  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
there  will  be  opened  a  new  and  sunnier  ave- 
nue in  which  the  honest  and  generous  studeni 
of  American  history's  most  remarkable  man 
may  confidently  walk. 


CHAPTER  III. 


ABE  LINCOLN'S  HALF-BROTHER. 

Wesley  M.  Enloe  is  now  eighty-seven  years 
of  age.  He  is  six  feet  high.  When  he  was 
in  the  prime  of  life  he  was  taller.  His  build 
is  slender  with  the  appearance  of  toughness 
and  sinewiness.  His  shoulders  are  narrow  and 
somewhat  rounded  at  the  points.  He  is  thin 
from  chest  to  back.  He  stands  almost  erect, 
and  his  head,  when  standing  or  sitting,  assumes 
an  attitude  indicative  of  firmness  and  decision. 
His  hands  and  fingers  are  large  and  long,  and 
his  arms  and  legs  are  long  and  skeleton-look- 
ing. His  legs,  in  length,  are  out  of  proportion 
to  his  body.  His  neck  is  long ;  face  lean  ^ 
forehead  high  and  slightly  sloping ;  his  nose 
is  large  and  straight  and  his  mouth  is  promi- 
nent— the  underlip  large  and  protruding.  His 
head  will  require  about  a  number  seven  and 
one-eighth  hat.  His  walk  and  various  body  pos- 


io.5 

turings  are  inimitable.  We  shall  desist  from 
entering  into  a  description  of  them  for  the 
simple  reason  that  one  who  is  familiar  with 
Abraham  Lincoln  will  say  that  we  have  pur- 
loined his  physical  idiosyncrasies.  The  truth 
is  that  the  two  men  are  so  much  alike  that 
one  hesitates  to  presume  upon  the  much- 
abused  credulity  of  mankind  by  a  faithful  por- 
trayal of  the  personal  and  bodily  charac- 
teristics of  Wesley  Enloe,  where  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  well  known,  and  feels  constrained  to  cry 
out,  with  Philip  of  old  :  "Come  and  see." 

His  address  is  plain,  extremely  unassuming 
and  deferential,  and  one  is  soon  at  ease  in  his 
company.  He  has  lived  his  whole  life  at  the 
old  homestead.  He  is  well  known  over  his 
own  and  adjoining  counties.  His  character  is 
beyond  reproach,  and  it  makes  the  western 
hillside  of  his  life  sunny  and  serene.  He  has 
always  been  an  influential,  well-to-do  farmer, 
whose  judgment  has  safely  been  deferred  to  by 
his  neighbors  in  matters  of  common  sense. 


io6 

The  cuts  of  him  here  presented  were  made 
from  poor  kodaks,  taken  whenhe  was  eighty-one 
and  eighty-eight  years  of  age,  after,  by  course 
of  nature,  he  had  lost  much  of  his  manly  vigor. 
There  was  no  other  likeness  of  him  in  exist- 
ence. A  cut  made  from  a  good  photograph, 
or  from  a  portrait  when  he  was  fifty,  would 
have  answered  the  purpose  of  its  appearing 
here  more  satisfactorily  and  fairly. 

We  asked  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Company, 
who  are  now  in  possession  of  Herndon's 
Lincoln,  to  kindly  allow  us  to  use  the  frontis- 
piece of  their  first  volume  as  a  comparative 
likeness  with  that  of  Wesley  Enloe,  but  they 
courteously  declined  to  comply  with  our 
request  The  likeness  of  Mr.  Lincoln  here 
referred  to  presents  him  clean  shaven,  and 
would  have  served  our  purpose  of  comparison 
better  than  any  representation  of  him  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge.  But  with 
what  we  have  it  will  not  require  an  expert  to 
detect  the  striking  resemblance. 


We  also  asked  Messrs.  Appleton  &  Co. 
to  allow  us  to  use  a  few  passages  from  Hern- 
don  &  Weik's  biography  on  condition  of 
credit  to  the  book,  but  they  respectfully  de- 
clined in  this  also.  We  have  therefore  been 
studiously  careful  not  to  quote  a  single  one  of 
that  biography's  misgivings  (for  such  is  one's 
feeling  as  he  reads  it)  as  to  whether  Mr.  Lin- 
coln really  had  a  paternal  ancestor. 

We  have,  however,  briefly  compared  the 
misty,  winterish  chapter  of  that  book  on  Mr. 
Lincoln's  origin  with  our  tradition,  from  what 
we  had  assimilated  by  reading  it.  We  recom- 
mend to  the  reader  who  desires  seriously  to 
inquire  into  our  tradition,  as  well  as  to  study 
judiciously  the  life  of  a  truly  great  one  among 
many  of  earth's  so-called  great  men,  the  biog- 
raphy of  Abraham  I/incoln  by  Messrs.  Hern- 
don  &  Weik. 

But  to  recur  to  the  subject  of  personal  resem- 
blance :  We  shall  ask  that  the  personal  expe- 
rience of  one  out  of  scores  of  similar  experi- 


joS 

•ences  may  suffice  to  convey  to  you  some  idea 
of  the  remarkable  physical  likeness  which 
Wesley  M.  Enloe  bears  to  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  the  force  with  which  it  strikes  even  a 
casual  observer : 

"In  1894  Mr.  Theodore  Harris,  of  San  Anto- 
nio, Texas,  a  cultured  gentleman,  was  stopping 
in  my  town.  He  had  heard  the  Lincoln  tradi- 
tion, and  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
personal  characteristics  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Mr.  Harris  and  myself  made  a  trip  up  the 
Ocona  Lufta  river  on  a  fishing  and  hunting 
expedition.  Passing  up  the  river,  as  we  were 
nearing  Mr.  Wesley  Enloe's  place,  we  saw  a 
man  coming  on  foot  down  the  road  toward  us. 
Before  we  were  quite  near  enough  to  discern 
his  features,  Mr.  Harris,  in  an  animated  but 
half-suppressed  manner,  pointed  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  man  and  said  :  '  That  is  Mr.  Enloe 
of  whom '  I  have  heard — the  alleged  half- 
brother  of  Lincoln,'  or  words  to  that  effect. 
Sure  enough,  on  coming  up  to  him,  we  found 


109 

that  it  was  Wesley  Enloe,  for  I  had  met  him 
before.  I  confessed  to  Mr.  Harris  that  I  had 
never  before  witnessed  so  remarkable  an  inci- 
dent. He  explained  to  me,  as  well  as  I  can 
now  recall  his  words,  that '  the  personal  resem- 
blance of  Wesley  Enloe  to  Abraham  Lincoln 
flashed  upon  him  like  a  revelation.' " 

SIGN  T.  EARLY. 

Dillsboro,  N.  C.,  Jan.  9,  1899. 

Mr.  Early  is  an  intelligent  gentleman  of 
unquestioned  veracity.  Mr.  Harris  lives  in 
San  Antonio,  Texas. 


A  RECAPITULATION, 


I  am  aware  that  in  the  heading  of  this  chap- 
ter I  have  made  a  seemingly  bold  venture. 
The  "half-brother"  is  not  the  son  of  Nancy 
Hanks  by  her  second  husband,  for  she  was  not 
married  twice  ;  he  is  not  the  son  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  by  his  second  wife,  for  his  name  is 
Enloe  ;  his  native  State  is  North  Carolina  and 
not  Kentucky.  How,  then,  can  he  be  Lin- 
coln's half-brother?  Only  in  this  way:  A 
native  of  North  Carolina  is  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  and  not  Thomas  Lincoln,  of 
Kentucky.  Have  I  slandered  the  great  Lin- 
coln ?  Have  I  slandered  the  nation  ?  Let  the 
facts  speak  : 

First. — The  tradition  exists ;  you  have  read 
the  evidence  in  the  foregoing  chapter. 

Second. — The  silence  of  history.  Search  his 
biographies  and  you  are  convinced.  Do  not 


Ill 

depend  on  isolated  paragraphs  from  school  his- 
tories not  written  in  Kentucky  nor  Illinois. 
Why  this  silence  ? 

Third. — A  striking  physical  resemblance  of 
the  "half-brother"  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  say 
"striking,"  because  it  has  overcome  high  L,in- 
colnian  prejudice  and  forced  conviction. 

I  shall  give  the  experience  of  a  gentleman, 
thoroughly  trustworthy  and  competent,  sub- 
stantially as  he  gave  it  to  me.  It  has  the 
greater  weight  because  it  comes  from  a  gentle- 
man who,  from  my  conference  with  him,  I 
found  wished  the  mist  cleared  away  from  Mr. 
Lincoln's  paternity. 

I  cannot  give  his  exact  words  and  have  not 
obtained  permission  to  give  his  name  ;  and  so 
presume  upon  the  reader's  confidence  in  my 
veracity.  However,  I  will  here  engage  that 
if  I  am  challenged  I  will  promptly  call  on  the 
gentleman  in  question  to  speak  for  himself. 

He  said  he  visited  the  home  of  Wesley  En- 
loe,  and  spent  the  night.  As  was  his  wont  he 


112 

made  a  study  of  the  former's  physiognomy, 
though  he  had  no  case  to  make  out.  He  said 
that  Mr.  Enloe  did  not  suggest  Lincoln.  On 
returning  to  his  home  he  was  examining  a  de- 
scription of  a  statue  of  Lincoln  in  one  of  the 
leading  magazines,  and  paused  to  study  the 
representation — it  suggested  Wesley  Enloe, 
and  the  resemblance  carried  conviction.  On 
inquiring  more  carefully  into  the  tradition, 
liis  conviction  was  confirmed. 

You  say  he  would  not  have  detected  the  re- 
semblance if  he  had  not  first  heard  the  tradi- 
tion. But  detecting  the  resemblance  is  differ- 
ent from  being  convicted  by  it.  The  observer 
was  loath  to  believe  the  fact  the  resemblance 
proved. 

The  skeptic  will  further  object  that  the  re-, 
semblance  is  simply  a  coincidence.  But  the 
uniqueness  of  the  coincidence  is  his  misfor- 
tune. It  is  a  coincidence  on  one  side  of  which 
is  a  tradition  authenticated  by  the  most  valid 
testimony,  and  on  the  other  side  the  most  re- 


anarkable  silence  of  history ;  a  silence  incred- 
ible if  the  tradition  is  apocryphal,  for  no  other 
voice  has  ever  been  heard.  One  note  of  history 
would  drown  the  alleged  slander ;  but  it  has 
:not  been  heard. 

Are  the  tradition  and  the  silence  a  co- 
incidence ? 

It  cannot  be  said  that  this  physical  resem- 
blance was  the  beginning  of  the  tradition,  for 
the  tradition  existed  before  it  was  known,  ac- 
•  cording  to  the  testimony. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  story  causes  men 
to  imagine  there  is  a  resemblance;  skeptics 
•do  not  possess  imaginations  of  such  conveni- 
ence. The  country  is  full  of  close  observers 
whose  judgment  cannot  be  affected  by  an  idle 
story,  whatever  their  prejudice  may  be. 

Fourth. — Clear,  positive  testimony.  I  need 
not  recite  the  evidence  bearing  on  the  fact  that 
.a  young  woman  named  Nancy  Hanks  was  the 
another  of  an  illegitimate  child  by  Abraham 
:Enloe,  and  that  she  was  conveyed  to  Kentucky, 


n4 

either  before  or  shortly  after  the  birth  of  the 
child  ;  you  read  the  evidence  in  Chapter  I. 

If  the  evidence  stopped  here  I  should  not 
feel  myself  vindicated  against  the  charge  of 
slander. 

There    might   have   been   another    Nancy 

• 

Hanks. 

But  take  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Joe  Collins 
of  Clyde,  N.  C.,  a  man  of  unquestioned  ve- 
racity ;  it  runs  as  follows  :  He  was  in  Texas  ;. 
Judge  Gilmore  told  him  that  he  was  raised  in 
the  community  of  Nancy  Hanks,  and  she  had 
a  boy  named  Abraham.  She  married  Tom 
Lincoln,  a  whisky  distiller,  and  the  boy  took 
his  name.  He  was  about  six  years  older  than 
Abraham,  but  went  to  school  with  him,  and 
he  was  the  brightest  boy  in  the  community. 

Now  this  testimony,  saying  nothing  of  the 
rest,  must  be  gotten  out  of  the  way  before  L 
am  a  slanderer. 

No  one  can  reasonably  doubt  that  Mr.  Col- 
lins received  these  statements  from  a  man  who- 


"5 

-represented  himself  to  him  as  Judge  Gilmore. 
Now  it  devolves  upon  my  prosecutor  to  do  one 
of  the  following  things  : 

First,  to  prove  that  no  such  man  as  Judge 
Gilmore  spent  his  boyhood  in  the  community 
with  young  Lincoln  and  his  mother,  and  that 
Mr.  Collins  has  been  deceived.  Establish  it 
in  this  way.  Go,  or  send  a  representative  to 
the  community,  and  let  the  most  diligent  and 
general  inquiry  be  made,  and  if  nobody  re- 
members a  boy  in  that  section  (unless  all  the 
old  people  are  dead,  or  gone  from  there,  who 
remember  young  Lincoln)  named  Gilmore, 
old  enough  to  have  been  Lincoln's  schoolmat^ 
and  later  left  for  Texas,  or  elsewhere,  then  we 
give  up  that  part  of  the  testimony.  Mr.  Col- 
lins has  been  deceived.  But  if  it  is  remem- 
bered that  a  boy  named  Gilmore  grew  up  in 
that  community  about  the  age  of  Lincoln,  and 
removed,  the  next  thing  to  arrive  at  is  that  he 
-did  not  go  to  Texas,  as  far  as  the  people  know. 
His  kinsfolk  can  tell  you,  or  some  of  the  old 


n6 

neighbors.  If  it  is  remembered  that  he  lived' 
there  at  the  time  designated,  and  went  to 
Texas,  the  same  people  will  know  whether  he- 
was  a  judge.  If  they  do,  the  next  thing  to  do- 
is  to  establish  the  fact  that  he  was  not  reliable. 
Few  men  reach  the  bench  who  are  not  reli- 
able. The  old  people  in  the  community  of 
his  boyhood  can  give  yoii  his  character  there.. 
The  people  of  the  town  in  Texas  where  he 
resided  can  tell  you  whether  he  was  a  man  of 
veracity.  If  he  succeeds  here  Mr.  Collins's- 
testimony  is  lost.  If  he  fails  the  next  thing- 
to  do  is  to  produce  a  second  Nancy  Hanks  who* 
was  married  to  a  second  Thomas  Lincoln,  and 
who  also  had  a  boy  named  Abraham.  If  he- 
fails  in  one  of  these  things  I  am  vindicated : 
if  he  succeeds  in  any  one  of  them  I  am  not  con- 
victed there  is  other  testimony. 

The  positive  character  of  the  testimony  in- 
North  Carolina  and  the  wide-spread  and  in- 
eradicable conviction  as  to  its  truthfulness,  and 
the  suspicious  silence  of  biography  put  the 


U7 

burden  upon  my  prosecutor  to  make  general, 
painstaking  and  impartial  investigation  on  the 
scene  of  Lincoln's  boyhood,  and  show  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  "Nancy  Hanks"  story. 
Here  he  has  the  same  disadvantages.  This 
would  seem  to  be  my  disadvantage,  but  it  is 
his,  in  fact. 

Kentucky  naturally  aspires  to  the  honor  of 
producing  the  great  Lincoln ;  hence  an  in- 
superable reticence.  The  world  will  under- 
stand. But  the  retort  may  be  made  that  in 
North  Carolina  the  same  aspiration,  in  some 
cases  and  the  memory  of  the  late  unpleasant- 
ness in  others,  cause  an  undue  readiness  to 
ventilate  the  tradition.  When  you  seek  to 
obtain  written  statements  you  will  find  the 
retort  of  no  great  weight.  It  is  too  early  for 
a  Kentucky  investigator  to  give  in  his  expe- 
rience. There  is  no  readiness  on  the  part  of 
any  one  in  North  Carolina  to  ventilate  the 
tradition. 

The  contention  of   some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 


biographers  is  that,  as  we  have  noticed  else- 
where, Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks 
had  a  daughter  older  than  Abraham,  and 
that  ends  it.  If  this  be  so,  there  are  two 
Nancy  Hankses.  For  Abraham  Enloe  had 
some  communication  with  one  in  Kentucky, 
who  had  a  child  by  him  named  Abraham. 
It  is  a  little  unlikely  that  two  women  named 
Nancy  Hanks  would  each  have  a  son  named 
Abraham,  but  it  could  have  happened.  Did 
it  happen  ?  The  existence  of  the  Nancy  with 
a  daughter  older  than  her  Abraham  is  abso- 
lutely without  proof. 

The  record  in  the  family  Bible  cannot  be 
relied  on.  One  biographer  thinks  the  oldest 
daughter's  name  is  mutilated.  Some  say  her 
name  was  one  thing,  some  another.  Lincoln 
was  utterly  indifferent  toward  this  sister. 
Could  she  have  been  akin  to  him?  Those 
who  persist  in  apotheosizing  him  had  better 
say  no.  There  is  positive  proof  that  Thomas 
Lincoln's  second  wife  had  a  daughter  named 


Sarah.  The  record  was  not  made  till  1851,  in 
Lincoln's  own  handwriting.  He  could  not 
afford  to  distinguish  between  the  two  sets  ot 
children.  Would  he  be  likely  to  leave  out 
of  the  record  his  stepmother's  daughter  by  her 
iirst  husband?  There  is  doubt  about  the 
first  "  Nancy"  having  the  daughter  older  than 
her  Abraham.  The  absence  of  positive  proof 
of  the  older  daughter's  existence  and  an  un- 
likely coincidence  jeopardize  the  existence  of 
the  first  "  Nancy." 

But  we  know  that  the  second  "  Nancy  " — 
the  North  Carolina  one — did  exist  and  went 
to  Kentucky  under  a  cloud ;  had  a  son  named 
Abraham. 

•  Am  I  convicted?  Not  till  the  investigation 
is  made,  as  above  suggested,  and  none  are 
found  who  know  a  fact  which  points  clearly 
in  the  direction  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  ille- 
gitimate ancestry.  As  long  as  there  remains 
a  circumstance  that  suggests  doubt,  I  am  not 
•convicted.  It  will  be  easier  for  the  skeptic 


120 

to  abuse  than  disabuse.  If  the  testimony  of 
Mr.  Joe  Collins  is  not  demolished  and  the 
Kentucky  investigator  reports  adversely, — and 
I  await  results, — we  have  a  case  clear  as 
second-hand  human  evidence  can  make  it. 

Do  Abraham  Lincoln's  historians  tell  the 
truth  when  they  aver  that,  after  diligent  search 
where  they  were  most  likely  to  find,  they  are 
unable  to  satisfy  themselves  or  even  to  say 
with  assurance  who  Mr.  Lincoln's  father  was  ? 
Does  any  other  State  or  locality  in  this  coun- 
try or  elsewhere,  lay  claim  to  Lincoln's  father 
beside  North  Carolina  ?  Does  Kentucky  her- 
self lay  serious  claim  to  his  paternal  origin. 
"  Of  what  ancestry  we  know  not,"  says  Mr. 
Watterson.  Does  North  Carolina  say  who- 
Abraham  Lincoln's  father  was?  Are  old, 
distinguished  citizens,  for  example  Col.  Davis 
and  Judge  Gilmore,  truthful  ?  Are  three  gen- 
erations of  North  Carolinians  truthful?  Is 
the  phenomenal  physical  likeness  of  Wesley 
Enloe,  Lincoln's  traditional  half-brother,. 


121 

walking  side  by  side  with  and,  like  a  sturdy 
staff,  supporting  the  North  Carolina  tradition,, 
convincing  and  conclusive  ? 

Reader,  answer  these  questions,  and  say 
whether  henceforth  there  is  any  doubt  that 
Abraham  Bnloe,  a  strong,  intelligent,  leading 
North  Carolina  pioneer,  was  the  great  war 
president's  father. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


ABRAHAM  ENLOE. 

Abraham  Enloe,  the   traditional  father   of 

Abraham   Lincoln,  was   the   son   of    Gilbert 

Enloe,  and  was  born  in  York  district,  South 

•Carolina.     The  first  of  his  American  forebears 

came  from  Scotland  about  the  middle  of  the 

seventeenth   century.     They   landed   first   in 

Maryland,   but  subsequently  moved  to  South 

Carolina,   where    they    settled.      They   were 

school-teachers. 

Abraham's  father,  being  a  man  of  more  than 
ordinary  mental  endowment,  the  son  received 
the  rudiments  of  a  good  education.  On  com- 
ing of  age  he  stepped  from  under  his  father's 
roof  into  the  world  to  seek  his  fortune.  • 

As  a  boy  he  was  obedient  and  industrious 
and  had  made  the  most  of  his  father's  splendid 
.tuition.  He  was,  therefore,  well  equipped 


123 

for  one  of  his  day  for  the  struggle  for  life- 
Re  was  of  an  excellent  temper  and  judgment 
while  yet  a  youth.  He  illustrated  these  in  his- 
choice  of  a  country  and  clime  in  which  to  ex- 
ercise his  vigorous  young  faculties,  as  well  as 
in  the  selection  of  a  wife  to  share  with  him  in 
their  fruitions. 

He  sought  a  home  first  in  Rutherford  countyy 
N.  C.,  where  he  became  acquainted  with  a 
Miss  Egerton,  a  young  lady  of  intellect  and 
culture  and  a  member  of  one  of  the  best  fam- 
ilies in  that  section  of  the  State.  Their  ac- 
quaintance at  once  ripened  into  genuine  affec- 
tion, and  they  were  married  and  settled  down 
to  farming. 

While  a  citizen  of  Rutherford  county  he 
established  a  reputation  for  uprightness  of 
character  which  is  still  recalled  with  pride  by 
his  neighbors,  and  which  followed  him  to  his 
new  home  and  throughout  his  life. 

About  the  year  1803  or  1805,  while  early 
settlers  were  "  staking  their  claims  "  further 


124 

west,  Abraham  Enloe  emigrated  from  Ruther- 
ford county  and  stopped  on  the  Ocona  Lufta, 
at  the  base  of  the  Great  Smoky  mountains  in 
Buncombe  county. 

In  the  settlement  of  his  new  home  he  en- 
countered the  usual  difficulties  of  the  pioneer. 
His  granddaughter,  a  Mrs.  Floyd,  a  bright 
and  entertaining  woman,  said  she  remembered 
hearing  her  grandfather  recount  his  experi- 
ences in  coming  to,  and  while  trying  to  estab- 
lish himself  on,  Ocona  Lufta.  The  journey 
from  Rutherford  over  great  mountains  and 
across  dangerous  streams  was  fraught  with 
labor  and  peril.  They  were  often  compelled 
to  improvise  causeways  for  creeks  and  rivers, 
or  to  construct  breastworks  and  dig  wider  the 
ways  of  the  more  primitive  adventurer  along 
the  almost  perpendicular  mountain  sides. 
When  they  had  thus  reached  the  summit  of 
the  high  mountains,  so  steep  was  the  descent, 
that  they  were  obliged  to  tie  good  bits  of  trees 
to  the  rear  ends  of  their  wagons  to  prevent 


stampeding  the  teams.  It  was  not  infrequent 
that,  because  of  the  absence  of  any  way  save 
a  deer  or  Indian  trail,  they  packed  their  effects 
piecemeal  on  their  backs  over  formidable 
mountains. 

He  was,  however,  fortunate  in  the  choice  of 
a  stopping  place.  The  Ocona  Lufta  is  in  the 
center  of  the  highlands  of  the  South,  midway 
between  the  Hiawassa,  Tennessee,  and  Nanta- 
hala  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Tuckuseegih, 
French  Broad  and  Swannanoa  on  the  other. 

It  was  a  land  to  make  the  heart  of  the  strong 
man  grow  stronger.  The  soil  was  rich.  The 
trees  were  original.  The  air  was  pure,  the 
water  was  crystal,  and  the  forests  were  alive 
with  a  very  great  variety  of  birds  and  animals. 
It  was  a  land  whose  star  was  not  wormwood, 
but  bright  hope. 

The  only  neighbors  that  were  near  to  him 
after  he  had  built  his  house  were  three  families 
who  had  accompanied  him  from  Rutherford, 
and  the  Cherokee  Indians,  in  the  heart  of 
whose  region  he  was. 


126 

There  were  other  white  families  living  within: 
a  distance  of  from  twelve  to  fifty  miles.  A 
settlement  in  those  days  embraced  a  circuit  of 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  miles,  and  was  made  up 
of  as  many  families.  It  was  such  a  settlement 
as  this  of  which  Abraham  Enloe  was  the  cen- 
tral figure  and  benefactor.  In  obedience  to  an 
ancient  custom  of  mankind,  each  society  or 
neighborhood,  however  small,  must  have  its 
leading  spirit  and  par-excellence  adviser.  Par- 
ticularly must  this  needs  be  the  practice  of 
a  community  where  the  frequent  hostilities  of 
aboriginals,  whose  grievance  is  by  no  means 
imaginary,  must  be  met.  The  common  inter- 
est must  be  healthful  and  steadfast. 

Abraham  Enloe  built  his  house  in  a  fertile 
valley  overlooking  the  Ocona  Lufta,  whose 
banks  in  summer  are  a  continuous  string  of  bou- 
quets— Rhododendron,  ivy  and  honeysuckle — 
to  this  day.  It  is  an  incident  worthy  of  note, 
here,  that  this  house  is  still  standing,  but 
slightly  remodeled;  and  has  been  in  four  conn- 


127 

ties  without  being  removed  from  its  original 
foundations.  It  is  a  typical  pioneer  abode. 
One  large  log  house  with  doors  in  either  side 
directly  opposite  each  other,  and  a  chimney  at 
one  end  built  of  natural  boulders,  with  a  re- 
markably wide  fireplace. 

%A  sure  reminder  of  the  brotherhood  of  the 
frontier  community  was  the  uniform  nature  of 
the  settler's  habitation.  The  style  and  value 
of  the  houses  were  as  near  the  same  as  primi- 
tive ingenuity  and  limited  resources  could 
make  them.  No  envy  rose  in  the  breast  of 
the  pioneer  because  of  striking  contrasts.  The 
cabin  did  not  droop  and  shiver  in  the  shadow 
of  the  palace.  Every  man  that  crossed  the 
settler's  threshold  crossed  it  like  a  knight. 

Notwithstanding  Abraham  Enloe  was  gen- 
erally absorbed  in  the  more  serious  concerns  of 
life,  he  found  time  for  the  then  profitable  diver- 
sion  of  hunting.  The  long-barreled  flintlock 
was  ever  "  picked  and  primed "  for  emer- 
gency use.  The  haunts  of  the  deer,  bear,  and 


128 

wild  turkey  were  just  outside  his  enclosure, 
and  many  are  the  thrilling  stories  of  delightful 
sport  in  which  he  was  always  joined  by  some 
of  his  neighbors.  On  his  broad  doorstep  and 
about  the  clean  yard  sat  or  slumbered  long- 
eared  deerhounds,  watchful  curs  or  surly  mas- 
tiffs. Each  of  these  bided  patiently  his  call' to 
dinner  or  duty,  and  all  were  indispensable  in 
their  respective  spheres  as  followers  of  the 
chase,  guards  of  the  plantation  and  protectors 
of  the  home. 

Returning  once  from  the  home  of  Hon. 
Felix  Walker,  whose  place  was  west  of  the 
settlement  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  Mrs.  Enloe 
was  amused  to  see  her  husband  alight  from 
his  horse,  across  whose  withers  was  a  white 
bag,  either  end  of  which  was  strangely  animate. 
Her  wonder  was  turned  to  ridicule  when  she 
learned  that  the  queer  sack  contained  four  fine 
deerhound  puppies,  the  gift  of  the  clever  con- 
gressman. The  pioneer  would  almost  as 
readily  have  given  up  his  rifle  as  his  dogs.  The 


129 

keen  solicitude  which  the  settlers  felt  and 
manifested  for  these  noble  animals  and  the 
tender  attachment  which  they  in  turn  made 
known  to  their  masters  in  their  heroic  rencoun- 
ters with  savage  beasts  and  more  savage  men, 
appeal  to  .  our  highest  sensibilities.  Their 
estimation  was  shared  by  men,  women  and 
children,  and  this,  no  doubt,  helped  to  tie  the 
Gordian  knot  of  good  neighborhood. 

Abraham  Enloe  owned  the  best,  and  at  first 
the  only,  horses  in  the  neighborhood.  He 
greatly  valued  these  splendid  animals,  as  well 
for  their  beauty  as  utility,  and  allowed  nothing 
to  go  undone  that  would  make  them  appear 
to  the  best  advantage. 

He  was  by  profession  a  farmer,  and  early  set 
a  progressive  pace  for  his  neighbors  in  his 
chosen  calling.  He  also  possessed  the  only 
forge  and  blacksmith  tools  in  the  settlement, 
with  which  he  kept  in  repair  the  farming  im- 
plements of  himself  and  neighbors. 

There  were  no  stores,  and  the  nearest  mar- 


130 

kets  to  which  the  settlement  had  access  were 
Augusta,  Ga.,  and  Charleston,  S.  C.  To  these 
places,  distant  hundreds  of  miles,  over  the 
roughest  of  country  and  rudest  of  way,  the 
settler  hauled  his  produce  or  drove  his  live 
stock,  which  he  eagerly  exchanged  for  the 
necessities  of  civilized  life. 

Abraham  Enloe  possessed  the  only  wagon 
in  the  settlement,  and  this  served  to  transport, 
at  one  trip,  the  salt,  powder  and  domestic  con- 
sumed by  the  entire  settlement  a  twelvemonth. 
Learning,  on  a  certain  occasion,  that  the  set- 
tlement's meager  supply  of  salt  was  exhausted, 
he  harnessed  his  team,  collected  a  few  choice 
steers  from  his  herd,  and  started  for  Augusta, 
Ga.,  where  afresh  supply  of  this  indispensable 
was  procured,  not  only  for  himself,  but  for 
each  of  his  neighbors. 

He  was  a  justice  of  the  peace,  an  offica  of  no 
little  dignity  in  primitive  times,  and  he  was 
implicitly  turned  to  as  the  final  arbiter  in  ad- 
justing differences  between  his  neighbors.  He 


was  the  trusted  adviser  of  the  politicians, 
great  and  small  of  his  party,  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  The  relations  existing  be- 
tween himself  and  the  Hon.  Felix  Walker,  the 
first  member  of  Congress  from  the  Buncombe 
district,  were  the  most  cordial  and  intimate. 

It  was  this  same  Felix  Walker,  a  discreet 
leader  of  frontiersmen,  who,  while  delivering 
himself  of  legislative  responsibility,  in  a 
speech  of  some  length  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, and  observing  what  he  construed 
to  be  an  expression  of  weariness  on  the  face 
of  the  Speaker  and  members,  raised  himself 
to  his  full  height  and  assured  them  that  he 
was  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  had  spoken  at 
some  length  ;  that  what  he  was  saying  might 
not  interest  them,  but  that  it  was  his  firm  re- 
solve to  continue  until  he  had  done,  and  then, 
with  reassured  emphasis,  he  said :  "  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  wish  the  gentlemen  of  this  Hause  to 
understand  that  I  am  speaking  for  Buncombe  !" 
Thus  originated  the  phrase  "speaking  for 
Buncombe." 


132 

The  house  of  Abraham  Enloe  was  head- 
quarters for  the  gospel.  The  pioneer  preacher, 
no  matter  his  creed,  found  there  a  warm  wel- 
come and  partook  of  his  hospitalities  without 
the  semblance  of  grudge. 

Public  worship  was  one  of  the  strongest 
bonds  of  these  early  communities.  At  a 
period  too  early  for  the  log  church  they  came, 
for  many  miles,  to  the  house  of  some  promi- 
nent settler  to  an  annual  or  semi-annual  ap- 
pointment of  such  men  as  brave  old  Cartwright 
or  the  brilliant  Bascom.  To  them  worship  was 
not  a  mere  diversion.  *  It  was  a  solemn  re- 
sponsibility and  means  of  power  that  must  be 
seriously  regarded.  Earnestness  ,  fitted  them 
like  a  garment.  They  came  to  the  place  ap- 
pointed for  worship,  if  it  was  the  mild  season, 
in  their  shirt-sleeves,  with  their  rifles  on  their 
shoulders.  They  were  the  synonym  of  sim- 
plicity, and  every  declaration  based  upon  a 
straight  interpretation  of  the  Bible  they 
accepted  eagerly  and  without  question. 


133 

With  them  there  were  few  base  coins ;  most 
were  ringing  bright  gold.  From  them  have 
sprung,  like  wheat  from  a  virgin  soil,  the  har- 
vest of  heroic  men,  whose  mission  it  is  to  meet 
and  turn  aside  the  wild,  babbling  stream  of 
innovation  which  now  and  then  threatens  to 
mingle  its  noxious  floods  with  the  old  abiding 
river  of  human  progress. 

Abraham  Enloe's  house  was  often  converted 
into  a  settlement  sanctuary.  It  was  little  more 
than  a  half-dozen  miles  from  his  house  to  the 
capital  of  the  Cherokees.  His  policy  toward 
these  children  of  the  forest  was  benevolence — 
the  true  neighbor ;  while  white  men  of  other 
settlements  often  provoked  a  "  hurrying  to  and 
fro"  upon  the  war-path,  Abraham  Enloe  and 
his  dusky  neighbors  snugly  reclined  in  the 
bosom  of  peace. 

Abraham  Enloe  was  a  man  of  great  con- 
servatism and  judgment.  There  was  no  rash- 
ness in  his  nature.  He,  therefore,  sought, 
among  the  first  things  after  settling  in  West- 


cm  Carolina,  to  establish  a  permanent  friend- 
ship  between  himself  and  the  Chief  and  most 
influential  men  of  the  Cherokees.  He  ever 
enjoyed  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  band, 
and  his  relations  with  the  two  chiefs,  Yona- 
guskah  and  Sawinookih,  were  the  most  inti- 
mate and  pleasant. 

It  was  indeed  fortunate  for  Abraham  Enloe 
and  his  neighbors  that  they  were  contempo- 
raries of  such  dynasties  as  those  of  Yonagns- 
kah  and  Sawinookih.  These  chiefs  were  both 
men  of  great  natural  ability,  especially  Yona- 
guskah.  He  was  pronounced  by  a  competent 
judge,  who  knew  both  well,  the  intellectual 
peer  of  John  C  Calhonn. 

The  following  story,  as  told  by  Colonel 
W.  H.  Thomas,  who  was  an  eye-witness,  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  superstitious  wisdom  of 
this  old  Chief :  The  Cherokees,  like  most  men 
of  their  race  who  come  too  near  the  blessed 
influence  of  Caucasian  civilization,  became 
addicted  to  strong  drink.  Yonaguskah,  though 


SAWINOOKIH. 

The  First  Chief  Cherokee?,  in  His  Old  Age  and  in 
Civilian  Apparel. 


135 

himself  an  occasional  victim  of  its  subtle  em- 
braces, determined  upon  the  prohibition  of 
strong  drink  among  his  entire  band.  Sud- 
denly he  fell  into  a  stupor.  So  deep  and 
mysterious  was  his  slumbers  that  the  whole 
town  heard  of  it.  They  came  flocking  to  his 
side  and  looked  long  and  sadly  upon  him 
and  decided  that  he  was  dead.  In  agony 
they  waited  for  the  return  of  their  venerable 
Chief  to  his  senses  and  his  wondrous  walks 
and  ways.  But  no  sign  of  life  appeared,  and 
over  a  thousand  of  his  faithful  children  deter- 
mined, in  deep  sorrow,  to  celebrate  their  an- 
cient and  impressive  rite  of  funeral  and  sep- 
ulture. Forming  in  single  file  they  danced 
around  the  prostrate  Chief,  mumbling  their 
weird  death-chant. 

Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  the  solemn  per- 
formance, Yonaguskah  arose,  and  standing  in 
their  midst  with  the  inspiration  of  a  prophet 
and  majesty  of  a  king,  told  them  that  he 
had  been  translated  to  the  "  happy  hunting- 


136 

grounds,"  and  that  while  there  he  had  com- 
muned with  the  Great  Spirit  relative  to  their 
happiness.  He  said  he  was  impressed  that 
intemperance  would  be  the  means  of  their 
extermination,  and  advised  them  to  turn  their 
backs  on  the  "  fire-water  "  of  the  white  man. 
He  said  he  had  served  them  for  over  forty 
years  without  asking  for  a  cent  of  pay,  and 
the  only  thing  he  exacted  was  their  obedience. 
With  profound  feeling  he  bemoaned  his  own 
and  his  people's  mistake,  and  concluded  by 
directing  Colonel  Thomas  to  act  as  clerk  and 
write  the  following:  "The  undersigned  Cher- 
okees,  belonging  to  the  town  of  Qualla,  agree 
to  abandon  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors." 

Gravely  stepping  forward  the  old  Chief 
signed  first  and  was  then  followed  by  the 
whole  town.  For  many  years  this  pledge  was 
kept  inviolate,  and  at  last,  when  some  yielded 
to  the  influence  of  the  whites  and  were  lead 
to  break  it,  Yonaguskah  established  the  "  whip- 
ping-post" and  enforced  his  simple  pledge 


with  the  rigor  of  an  English  statute  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

Sawinookih  was  a  man  of  great  native  wit. 
In  one  of  his  visits,  as  Chief,  to  Washington 
he  imbibed  a  little  too  prodigally  of  "fire- 
water," and  wandering  around  in  the  bewilder- 
ing glare  of  lights  and  city  pageant  (for  it 
was  in  the.  night),  he  became  "lost,"  and 
leaned  up  against  the  corner  of  a  building  for 
the  night.  In  the  midst  of  his  dozings  a 
passer-by  accosted  him  with,  "  Hello,  Indian? 
aren't  you  lost?"  to  which  he  instantly  re- 
plied :  "  No  !  Injun  not  lost,  hotel  lost !  " 

Abraham  Enloe  was  a  large  stock-dealer  for 
his  day.  It  was  his  custom  to  drive  annually 
horses,  mules  and  cattle  to  southern  markets, 
and  by  this  and  the  acquisition  of  large  tracts 
of  land  and  the  slave-trade,  he  accumulated 
considerable  means  and  established  a  reputa- 
tion at  home,  and  in  the  marts  of  the  south, 
for  preeminent  judgment  and  far-reaching  busi- 
ness acumen. 


138 

He  trafficked  in  negroes  all  the  way  from 
Western  North  Carolina  to  Florida.  From 
the  latter,  on  one  occasion,  he  brought  home 
twenty.  He  was  kind  to  his  slaves.  A  practical 
example  of  his  benevolent  policy  toward  them 
was  shown  in  his  habitual  custom  of  reading 
and  expounding  to  them  the  Holy  Scriptures 
each  Sabbath. 

He  is  described  by  those  who  were  intimate 
with  him  to  have  been  possessed  of  a  fund  of 
anecdote.  He  was  also  rich  in  practical  hu- 
mor. When  he  would  take  the  Sunday  morn- 
ing's "tansy-dram,  "  of  which  the  pioneer  was 
famously  though  temperately  fond,  he  would 
call  up  his  little  negroes,  and  causing  them  to 
stick  out  their  big  under  lips,  he  would,  with 
much  dignity,  pour  a  teaspoonful  on  each 
protruded  lip  to  the  infinite  amusement  of  the 
family  and  the  exquisite  pleasure  of  the  little 
ebonites  themselves. 

In  his  private  life  Abraham  Enloe  was  cor- 
dially esteemed  by  his  neighbors.  In  his 


139 

family  he  ruled  with  patience  and  firmness. 
He  was  the  father  of  nine  sons  and  seven 
daughters.  The  sons  all  lived  to  man's  estate, 
the  only  surviving  one  of  whom  says  that 
each  of  the  nine  remained  under  parental  con- 
trol until  he  was  of  age,  and  not  one  was  ever 
known  to  rebel  against  his  father. 

In  personal  appearance  he  is  described  by 
the  family  and  those  who  knew  him  as  having 
been  a  very  large  man,  perhaps  more,  not 
less,  than  six  feet  high.  Not  corpulent  but 
muscular  and  sinewy.  His  head  was  large 
and  fine.  Forehead,  nose  and  mouth  promi- 
nent. His  hair  was  stiff  and  black.  His 
complexion  was  inclined  to  tawny. 

Unfortunately  there  is  no  likeness  of  him 
in  existence.  Men  of  his  time  didn't  set  much 
by  pictures,  and  artists  were  scarce  in  the  land. 

He  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  extraordi- 
nary mind.  It  is  the  universal  consensus 
that  he  was  the  strongest  character  in  his  sec- 
tion, as  a  plain,  practical,  unaspiring  citizen. 


140 

As  heretofore  intimated,  his  judgment  was 
cheerfully  deferred  to  or  eagerly  sought  by  his 
fellow  citizens  on  subjects  and  occasions  of 
moment. 

He  was  simple,  honest,  brave ;  an  ardent 
iriend  of  truth.  He  hesitated  not  to  go  on 
toilsome  errands  of  mercy  for  his  bereft  neigh- 
bors. He  asked  nothing  in  return  but  the  an- 
swer of  a  good  conscience.  He  was  the  best 
type  of  the  civilian ;  plain,  honest  and  unsel- 
fish. He  had  faults,  but  they  were  not  such  as 
rise  from  a  mean  heart  plunged  in  moral  tur- 
pitude, but  those  to  which  the  flesh  is  easily 
heir.  He  was  not  a  saint,  but  what  is  better 
here  below,  a  nature's  nobleman. 


CHAPTER  V. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Born  none  knowetli  when  or  where,  he  came 
up  out  of  the  bramble  of  obscurity.  Whether 
he  first  saw  the  light  in  the  woods,  on  the 
roadside,  or  in  a  dingy  hovel,  it  matters  not 
He  was  nature's  child,  and  nature  nursed  him. 
With  her  blessing  she  dropped  him  on  the 
world  and  bade  him  live.  He  was  first  a  help- 
less infant,  then  a  little  toddling  child,  and 
then  a  boy,  but  unlike  other  boys.  He  was 
awkward  and  gawky  ;  his  legs  and  arms  were 
longer,  his  hands  and  feet  were  larger  than 
those  of  other  boys.  He  was  more  diffident 
and  silent  than  any  other  boy. 

At  seven  he  went  to  school  and  Iearne4  to 
read ;  at  ten  he  learned  to  write.  He  was  seri- 
ous and  thoughtful ;  not  overmuch  energetic 
in  body,  but  stint  and  duty  urged  him  on,  and 


142 

he  wielded  the  ax  at  the  age  of  eight  and  did 
the  milling. 

Reaching  youth  he  remained  in  school,  pro- 
cured books  and  applied  himself  diligently. 
He  stepped  at  once  to  the  head  of  his  class, 
and  when  a  pretty  schoolmate,  in  spelling  a 
word,  hesitated  to  know  whether  to  say  i  orjy, 
he  pointed  to  his  eye,  she  spelled  it,  and  the 
teacher,  unobservant,  passed  on. 

He  loved  books.  He  eagerly  devoured  all 
there  were  in  the  secular  home  library  of  three 
books  and  turned  his  eye  in  search  of  others. 
He  made  himself  familiar  with  the  best  litera- 
ture of  the  neighborhood  for  miles  around. 
His  nightly  companions  were  such  sacred,  old 
standards  as  the  Bible,  ^sop's  Fables,  Robin- 
son Crusoe,  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  and 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  He  borrowed 
the  latter  from  a  penurious  neighbor,  placed  it 
in  the  crack  between  the  logs  of  the  cabin 

• 

overnight ;  there  came  a  rain,  which  wet  the 
book,  and  the  boy  carried  it  to  the  owner  to 


143 

assess  the  damage ;  the  owner  said  seventy-five 
cents,  and  young  Lincoln  pulled  fodder  three 
days  to  satisfy  him. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  wrote  a  dissertation 
on  temperance  and  essayed  poetry. 

He  grew  to  be  a  man,  and  he  wanted,  instead 
of  his  buckskin,  a  pair  of  brown  jeans  panta- 
loons, and  he  split  for  an  old  lady  four  hundred 
rails  for  every  yard  of  cloth  it  took  to  make 
them.  He  read,  he  wrote,  he  spoke,  he  lec- 
tured, he  farmed,  he  split  rails,  he  pitched 
quoits,  he  joked,  he  wrestled,  and  sometimes 
he  fought  a  fisticuff.  / 

He  became  a  surveyor ;  studied  the  statutes 
of  Indiana  and  practiced  stump-speaking  in  the 
fields  to  the  hands. 

He  assisted  in  the  management  of  a  ferry 
across  the  Ohio  river  at  thirty-seven  and  one- 
half  cents  a  day  ;  was  noted  as  being  the  strong- 
est man  in  the  settlement,  and  was  equally 
famous  for  writing  papers  on  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment. He  acted  as  bow-hand  on  a  boat  in  a 


144 

voyage  to  New  Orleans  at  a  salary  of  eight 
dollars  a  month,  and  made  three  thousand  rails 
for  one  man,  walking  three  miles  each  day  to 
his  work. 

He  was  a  religious  free-thinker  and  an  adept 
at  anecdote.  He  became  a  loaf  in  New  Salem, 
Illinois,  and  then  clerk  to  an  election  board. 
He  was  a  miller  and  then  a  clerk  in  a  store. 

He  was  a  merchant,  and  studied  English. 
He  was  a  hero  in  an  interesting  love-affair, 
and  came  near  fighting  a  duel. 

He  was  captain  of  a  company  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war  and  read  law  meanwhile. 

He  was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  and  later 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  was  one  of  the 
foremost  lawyers  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 
the  rival  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  the  heart 
of  a  charming  blue-blooded  girl ;  he  vanquished 
the  judge  and  obtained  her  hand  in  marriage. 

He  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  political 
journals,  and  attained  a  local  prominence  as  a 
campaigner  and  manager. 


145 

He  was  elected  to  Congress  and  never  opened 
his  mouth  except  to  vote. 

He  stepped  upon  the  hustings  against  the 
•"LitUe  Giant,"  and  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  country  by  his  resource  and  facility  at 
repartee. 

He  was  an  orator  of  rare  felicity,  and  a 
.statesman  of  extraordinary  sagacity. 

He  endeavored  to  lecture  on  "The  History 
.and  Progress  of  Inventions"  and  ignominiously 
failed.  He  was  invited  to  Cooper  Institute  to 
.speak ;  he  accepted  the  invitation,  spoke  on 
"The  Political  Issues  of  the  Day,"  and  paved 
his  way  to  the  presidency. 

He  was  nominated  for  the  Chief  Magistracy 
•of  the  nation  over  the  trained  diplomat  and 
statesman,  William  H.  Seward,  and  was  elected 
•over  three  other  candidates,  one  of  whom  was 
his  brilliant  old-time  rival,  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las. He  occupied  the  executive  chair  through 
the  most  horrible  war  of  all  history;  was 
•elected  to  a  second  term  during  the  progress  of 


1 46 

that  war,  and  just  as  he  was  adjusting  his  great 
faculties  to  lead  the  nation  into  a  glorious- 
peace,  he  was  stricken  by  the  red  hand  of  an 
assassin. 

History  affords  no  parallel  to  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. In  the  classification  of  the  world's  heroes - 
he  must  be  grouped  alone. 

In  the  commingling  and  jargon  of  the  com- 
mon mass,  he  stood  the  tall  representative  of  a. 
new  type. 

His  ways  were  of  his  own  making.  With 
his  face  set  straight  forward,  his  long  arms- 
swinging  heavily,  he  strode  so  mightily  that 
not  only  his  own  countrymen  did  list,  but  his 
footfall  echoed  around  the  world.  Now  he 
rose  up,  up,  until  he  reached  the  heights,  and 
then  he  grappled  with  the  earth,  and  made 
those  who  touched  him  feel  that  they  had 
touched  a  kindred  clay. 

His  was  a  many-sided  nature — an  antitheti- 
cal life — and  his  career  was  as  mixed  and; 
varying  as  his  nature  was  unique  and  odd. 


147 

Abraham  Lincoln  will  never  be  understood. 
'He  may  be  appreciated,  but  it  will  require  an 
exhaustive  study  of  his  character  to  enable 
-one  to  do  so. 

He  possessed  an  intellect  deep  and  keen. 
He  could  see  as  far  into  profound  and  difficult 
-questions  as  any  man  contemporaneous  with 
him,  or,  doubtless,  who  has  followed  him. 

He  had  a  will — a  will  that  was  volatile  or 
-immovable  at  the  command  of  his  soul.  On 
subjects  of  grave  import  his  will,  becoming 
t  fixed,  was  not  to  be  swerved  a  hair's  breadth  ; 
-on  questions  indifferent  and  small  his  volition 
was  the  obedient  child  of  policy  and  expedi- 
ency. His  mind  was  no  less  subtle  than  logi- 
-cal  in  its  operation.  His  judgment  was  as 
-clear  and  as  unerring  as  mortal's  usually  is. 

JHis  heart  was  large,  good  and  tender  as  a 

-child's.     It  was  responsive  in  the  highest  and 

best  degree.     No  one  in  distress  ever  appealed 

to  him  in  vain.     A  great,  picturesque  rock  in 

.a  dry  and    thirsty  land,    the    weary  traveler 

rrested  in  its  shade. 


148 

As  Lincoln  emerged  from  the  wilderness- 
into  civilization's  highway  men  looked  on 
him  and  were  amazed.  Whence  did.  he  come 
and  whither  was  he  bound  ?  Lincoln  beheld 
their  wonder.  He  read  their  very  thought, 
and  herein  was  his  mystery.  In  his  intuitive 
knowledge  of  men  he  towered,  like  the  giant 
he  was,  far  above  his  fellows. 

He  early,  how  early  we  know  not,  became 
conscious  that  he  was  a  man,  and  learned  to 
associate  with  men  as  such.     He  did  not  have 
to  come  down  on  the  common  human  level — 
he  walked  up  and  down  between  the  clods 
from  which  he  sprang  and  to  which  he  sadly 
sank.     In  matters  of  conscience  the  angel  of 
the  better  nature  was  his  guide.     He  was  not 
a  Christian  in  the  popular  sense,  traceable  no- 
doubt  to  his  early  bereavement  of  a  mother. 
He  had  no  faith  in  the  orthodox  sense ;  his- 
faith  was  reason — the  logic  of  cause  and  effect. 
His  reliance  was  firm  in  God  and  immortality;, 
his  religion  materialized  in  deeds  whose  endi 


149 

was  to  make  humanity  better.  He  was  not  a 
dreamer,  but  an  intense  practicalist.  Of  this 
his  life  bore  abundant  evidence.  By  this  it  is 
not  meant  that  he  could  not  scheme  or  plan 
on  the  largest  scale.  This  he  did.  But  like 
Alexander  and  Napoleon,  he  executed  as  rap- 
idly as  he  planned.  His  genius  was  the  most 
fertile  and  versatile.  No  exigency  arose  to 
confound  his  faculties  and  baffle  his-  resource. 
In  the  fiercest  administrative  storm  he  stood 
on  the  topmost  billow  like  a  Norseman  of  old 
unterrified.  In  the  midst  of  these  perplexi- 
ties, when  his  associates  were  all  dismay,  he 
related  a  humorous  anecdote  about  some  good 
farmer  in  Illinois,  and  transformed  the  scene 
of  distraction  into  hilarious  uproar. 

He  believed  in  the  right  and  ability  of  man- 
kind to  govern  themselves.  He  did  not  hesi- 
tate at  the  same  time  to  avow  "  that  all  of  the 
people  might  do  wrong  part  of  the  time." 

He  was  a  man  of  the  most  profound  prin- 
ciple. He  was  preeminently  a  man  of  policy. 
Principle  was  an  end,  policy  was  the  mears. 


He  was  courageous  physically,  intellectu- 
ally, morally.  He  shrank  not  from  physical 
contests  the  most  taxing. 

He  was  eager  to  cross  mental  swords  with 
the  most  brilliant. 

He  antagonized  old,  sacred  beliefs  in  poli- 
tics and  religion  with  weird  audacity,  and  his 
antagonist  always  bore  away  marks  of  the 
engagement. 

He  always  weighed  well  his  words  and  cal- 
culated coolly  his  acts;  their  effect  was  reck- 
oned before  they  left  him. 

He  was  ambitious.  He  was  aspiring.  He 
was  restless.  He  sighted  his  object,  and  then 
thought  and  planned  and  strove  to  reach  it. 

He  was  certain  of  his  powers,  and  he 
wielded  them  with  a  careful  hand.  There  was 
no  slumbering  of  talents  with  him ;  no  rust 
nor  ashes  with  the  broken  pottery  of  neglect 
in  the  paths  he  frequented. 

Like  some  precious  tree  that  regales  the 
passer-by  with  its  delightful  perfume,  he  im- 


parted  a  sweet  influence  to  all  who  passed 
through  the  atmosphere  of  his  being. 

While  others  studied  books,  Lincoln  studied 
men.  Here  was  another  and  real  secret  of  his 
life.  From  his  plain  Western  home  he  looked 
abroad  and  surveyed  the  field.  With  a  wise 
mid  cunning  eye  he  looked  at  the  East  with 
her  Phillips  and  her  Sumner  ;  the  North  with 
her  Seward  and  her  Cameron  ;  the  Middle  and 
West  with  their  Corwin  and  Chase;  men  of  his 
own  political  party ;  men  of  vaulting  ambi- 
tion and  commanding,  talent,  and  wondered 
how  he  might  pass  through  them  into  the 
White  House  of  the  nation. 

He  outwitted,  outthought,  outdid  a  rival,  no 
matter  how  great,  and  then  looking  back  from 
the  hill  of  success,  he  bound  up  that  rival's 
broken  hope  by  an  unseen  stratagem.  Thus 
he  made  Secretaries,  Generals,  and  Justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court. 

He  was  a  superb  tactician.  He  laid  his 
plans  with  the  utmost  precision,  and  these 
rarely  miscarried. 


152 

When  he  formulated  a  purpose  he  often  con- 
sulted the  mind  of  others,  but  in  the  end  he 
preferred  his  own  judgment,  and  upon  it  he 
risked  the  issue. 

He  was  frank  and  open  in  his  general  inter- 
course, but  there  was  a  well-known  line  in  his 
character  where  publicity  stopped  and  privacy 
began.  This  discipline  made  his  insight  into 
the  public  men  with  whom  he  dealt  approxi- 
mate omniscience.  He  knew  their  strong 
points,  their  virtues,  and  he  knew  their  faults 
and  foibles.  He  read  ,their  whims  and  their 
caprices  as  one  would  read  a  book. 

He  unbosomed  himself  to  none;  he  risked 
many  and  trusted  few.  He  collided  with  men 
who,  in  some  particular  field,  outshone  him  for 
a  moment,  but  it  was  only  for  a  moment ;  he 
had  but  to  stand  up  and  his  simple  personality 
overshadowed  them.  There  was  but  one 
other  person  who  possessed  such  simplicity 
and  majesty  of  character  in  our  country,  and 
that  was  Robert  E.  Lee. 


He  knew  the  people — the  plain  folks,  as  he 
was  pleased  to  style  them — as  no  man  has 
known  them  since  the  nation  was  born.  He 
was  of  them.  Through  the  white  portals  of 
the  capitol  of  the  republic  he  looked  into  the 
lowly  doors  of  millions  of  cabins  each  day  of 
his  four  years  official  incumbency.  He  saw 
the  struggle  and  toil ;  the  grief  and  tears — he 
felt  them.  As  their  faithful  servant  he  re- 
membered them  and  conducted  their  affairs 
with  a  view  to  their  peace,  prosperity,  and  hap- 
piness. He  knew  their  mode  of  thinking. 
He  was  conversant  with  their  manner  of 
speaking.  He  was  familiar  with  their  way  of 
acting.  He  thought,  spoke  and  acted  as  if  he 
were  in  their  presence.  When  he  saluted 
them  or  took  them  by  the  hand,  there  was  a 
meeting  of  friends.  He  was  the  prince  of 
plain  men,  and  they  were  his  neighbors.  He 
communicated  with  them  in  simplest  speech 
enlightened  by  homely  illustration.  With  an 
endless  supply  of  fable  and  anecdote  he  amused 
and  instructed. 


154 

He  loved  and  served  the  people,  and  the  peo- 
ple loved  and  honored  him.  When  it  came  to 
dealing  with  the  people  he  had  no  patience 
with  the  time-server.  He  was  bold  when  he 
dealt  with  the  people.  He  invited  the  most 
rigid  scrutiny  of  his  public  acts.  He  promul- 
gated his  conviction  or  policy,  defended  it 
through  every  stage  of  its  progress,  and  if  it 
failed  of  its  object  he  acknowledged  his  mis- 
take and  assumed  the  responsibility.  He 
sounded  the  public  necessity  and  sought  to 
satisfy  it. 

Trickery  and  simulation  were  foreign  to 
him.  If  he  thought  he  was  being  imposed 
upon,  woe  be  to  the  impostor.  If  it  was  with- 
out his  power  to  aid  a  friend,  he  frankly  told 
him  so. 

He  was  charitable  in  the  high  catholic 
sense.  He  had  a  tender  fellow-feeling  for 
mankind.  He  knew  the  many  weaknesses  to 
which  the  flesh  is  heir.  He  was  sure  to  see  the 
suffering  heart,  and  no  one  ever  touched  it 
more  often  to  soothe. 


He  frequently  withdrew  from  the  multitude 
and  communed  with  himself.  He  came  forth 
stronger  when  he  had  encountered  a  difficulty. 
He  left  the  dross  in  the  fire  ;  sorrow  and  trib- 
ulation were  his  earthly  lot.  "  Myrrh  and  aloes 
and  ivory  palaces  "  turned  not  his  head  ;  he 
was  touched  but  not  influenced  by  praise  ;  he 
was  often  mortified  but  never  unmanned  by 
criticism.  The  ludicrous  filled  him  with  life ; 
sorrow  and  suffering  melted  his  heart. 

He  never  fawned  upon  the  public  or  an  indi- 
vidual, and  he  was  thought  by  some  to  be  sel- 
fish and  austere.  He  never  meddled  with  the 
affairs  of  others,  and  he  was  accused  of  seeking 
personal  aggrandizement. 

In  the  practice  of  the  law  he  was  natural 
and  urbane,  and  he  was  called  a  monkey  and 
a  clown.  He  was  cautious  and  conservative 
in  the  exercise  of  his  official  functions,  and  he 
was  suspicioned  and  criticized  by  the  impetu- 
ous who  should  have  been  his  warmest  friends. 

As  president,  he  was  not  impervious  to  ad- 


156 

-verse  political  criticism  or  personal  detraction, 
-and  he  made  fewer  mistakes  than  any  man 
who  has  yet  filled  that  exalted  station. 

In  private  life  he  was  natural,  original  to 
the  point  of  eccentricity. 

He  was  by  nature  a  melancholy  man  ;  he 
•drew  it  from  his  mother.  The  purple  linea- 
ments of  this  inward  ghost  shone  from  his 
pale  and  haggard  face.  At  times  this  spirit 
well-nigh  overcame  him,  but  he  asserted  his 
mighty  will.  He  courted  the  nymph  of  hu- 
mor ;  he  gathered  stories  full  of  mirth  and 
moral  and  told  them  to  his  company,  and  the 
Avide  prairie,  the  disordered  law-office,  or  the 
•executive  chamber  rang  with  jocund  laughter. 

He  was  a  patient  husband,  a  lenient,  loving 
father.  He  was  no  conventionalist ;  he  cared 
less  than  nothing  for  fad  or  fashion  ;  he  was 
insensible  to  gossip  and  had  no  part  or  lot  in 
the  little  strivings  of  small  men.  With  him 
there  were  no  petty  likes  and  dislikes — noth- 
ing mean  or  groveling.  He  hated  a  simper- 


I57 

ing  flatterer  or  growling  churl  with  a  mortal 
hatred.  He  was  forgiving,  sympathetic,  kind 
— a  broad-minded,  great-hearted  gentleman. 

He  was  an  American — the  first  American 
illustrating  the  existence  of  a  new  national 
type.  He  was  the  first  popularly  acknowl- 
edged representative  of  the  plebeian  cast ;  the 
first  prince  of  American  peasants,  and  lifting 
him  upon  their  shoulders  they  proclaimed  him 
the  first  yeoman  of  their  freehold. 

Of  Southern  origin,  born  in  the  South,  he 
came  up  on  a  Western  prairie.  To  Southern 
inheritance  was  added  Western  environment. 
To  Southern  warmth  and  generosity,  springing 
from  Southern  sun  and  soil,  was  added  the 
freedom  of  the  Western  plain  and  the  rough 
habits  of  Western  life.  He  was  by  nature  and 
education  the  product  of  rural  energy.  The 
South  and  West  were  the  home  of  this  ele- 
ment. Of  this  element  Lincoln  was  the  un- 
trammeled  child.  His  parents  never  dreamed 
of  Northern  or  Eastern  sticklings  for  ancient 


158 

transatlantic  customs  and  laws.  Such  were 
his  early  surroundings,  and  so  soon  did  he  leave 
the  South  that  he  never  had  any  preposses- 
sions in  favor  of  human  slavery. 

He  was  the  simple  though  strong  individual 
and  then  the  oracle  of  his  class — the  masses 
everywhere.  The  blessings  of  his  virtuous 
mind  and  provident  hand  in  due  time  began 
to  fall  upon  all.  His  influence  no  partizanship 
could  destroy  or  faction  avoid.  v 

He  was  a  patriot.  He  loved  his  country  for 
his  country's  sake.  He  sought  to  cement  the 
common  interest  and  advance  the  common 
weal. 

He  was  a  steadfast  believer  in,  and  supporter 
of,  the  Constitution.  He  studied  and  con- 
strued it.  He  advocated  a  perpetual  Union, 
and  wrould  not  admit  the  right  of  any  State  to 
withdraw  from  it.  He  labored  as  no  man 
ever  has  or  will  to  preserve  the  Union  unim- 
paired. This  was  the  sole  and  only  object  of 
his  chief  magisterial  life.  He  was  opposed  to- 


159 

the  extension  of  human  slavery  into  new  ter- 
ritory, but  "it  was  never  his  inclination  or 
purpose  to  interfere  with  that  institution  in 
the  States  where  it  did  exist."  He  deprecated 
the  idea  of  freeing  the  colored  race  and  turn- 
ing them  loose,  clothed  with  equal  rights» 
among  the  white  people  of  the  South.  If  he 
had  lived  it  never  would  have  been  done.  He 
was  the  great  central,  controlling  spirit  on  the 
Union  side,  and  he  waged  the  war  on  purely 
defensive  grounds.  The  noble  people  of  the 
North  and  East,  though  blood  of  our  blood, 
did  not  realize  the  situation.  Their  splendid 
humanitarianism  was  too  long-ranged.  Not 
by  striking  the  shackles  from  the  colored  race, 
for  that  was  right,  but  by  making  him  the 
equal  of  all  of  us  whom  they  would  not  ac- 
knowledge the  equal  of  a  single  man  of  them, 
they  decreed  that  we  should  wander  in  the 
wilderness  of  problem  and  uncertainty,  not 
forty  years,  but  indefinitely.  Lincoln  under- 
stood this,  and  his  great  heart  went  out  in 


i6o 

sympathy  for  the  bleeding  South.  He  knew 
that  he  was  the  son  of  her  bosom  and  that  her 
children  were  his  brethren. 

He  labored  as  long  as  there  was  a  shadow 
•of  hope  to  avert  war.  When  its  crimson  tide 
began  to  flow,  he  proposed  to  buy  the  slaves 
and  stop  it.  Failing  in  this,  he  endeavored 
to  colonize  them  beyond  the  choler  of  unhappy 
memory  and  the  antipathy  of  strange  blood. 

Persistent,  firm  and  gentle  in  his  memory 
•of  the  South,  he  bore  up  against  the  pressure 
from  the  North  to  arm  the  black  man  against 
his  former  master.  But  when  at  last  he  saw 
that  unless  something  was  done,  his  fondest 
dream  would  come  to  naught,  he  reluctantly 
gave  way,  and  a  portion  of  the  slaves  were 
made  to  lift  their  hands  against  us. 

The  stricken  South  lost  this  noble  friend — 
her  filial  scion — when  least  she  could  afford  it. 
Wilkes  Booth  might  well  have  stayed  the 
deadly  hand,  for  if  he  had  the  South  had 
journeyed  round  the  valley  through  which  she 


is  passing.  But  happily  the  time  is  now  when 
the  generous  people  of  the  North  and  East 
who,  with  the  wisdom  of  prophecy,  picked 
Mr.  Lincoln  up  at  his  opportunity  and  placed 
him  where  God  intended,  are  seeing  their 
mistake,  and  with  the  same  candor  and  zeal 
which  marked  their  strife  to  bring  about  our 
problem,  are  essaying  to  help  us  solve  it. 

America  has  produced  and  will  produce  but 
one  Lincoln.  The  world  may  now  see  but 
shall  not  soon  understand  this  enigmatical 
man. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  ENLOES. 

It  is  not  only  interesting  but  of  historical 
importance  to  produce,  in  this  connection,  a 
short  account  of  the  Enloe  family. 

This  family  does  not  lay  claim  to  a  niche  in 
the  nation's  Westminster,  nor  does  it  accept  a 
plat  in  its  potter's  field.  It  rather  takes  its 
place  in  the  cemetery  of  honor  and  respecta- 
bility. This  is  not  meant  to  refer  so  much  to- 
descent  as  to  position  in  society.  It  is  not  our 
object  to  lay  for  it  "claim  to  long  descent." 
This  doubtless  would  bring  with  it  some  diffi- 
culty, and  yet  it  would  be  no  more  difficult  in 
the  case  of  the  Enloes  than  in  that  of  any  other 
ordinary  family  of  the  English-speaking 
people. 

In  support  of  this  last  proposition,  permit 
me  to  quote  a  no  less  eminent  authority  than 


MRS.  ANDREW  J.  PATTON 
Daughter  of  Wesley  Enloe. 


Justice  Walter  Clark :  "  William  the  Conque- 
ror ascended  the  throne  of  England  A.  D. 
1066.  Allowing  thirty-three  years  as  a  gen- 
eration, there  have  been  twenty  generations, 
counting  his  children  then  living  as  the  first 
generation.  Many  people  have  several  chil- 
dren, others  have  more.  It  is  certainly  not 
an  immoderate  calculation  to  average  each 
descendant  as  having  three  children,  for  if  each 
descendant  with  his  wife  had  left  only  two 
children,  the  population  would  have  stood  still, 
whereas  less  than  a  million  inhabitants  of  the 
British  Isles  of  that  day  have  grown  to  be 
nearly  forty  millions  there  and  seventy  mil- 
lions on  this  side  of  the  water.  William  the 
Conqueror  had  four  sons  and  six  daughters ; 
averaging  each  of  these  as  having  three  chil- 
dren, with  the  same  average  for  each  of  their 
descendants  down  to  the  present,  and  the  ten 
children  of  William  in  the  present  or  twenty- 
fifth  generation,  by  a  simple  arithmetical  cal- 
culation, would  have  2,824,295,314,810  de- 


164 

scendants  now  living  in  the  British  Isles,  in 
America,  in  the  colonies,  or  wherever  men  of 
British  descent  are  to  be  found. 

As  this  is  fully  twenty-five  thousand  times 
as  many  as  there  are  people  of  British  descent 
on  the  globe,  there  must  be  an  error  in  the 
above  calculation.  There  are  two.  First: 
While  an  average  of  two  children  to  each  de- 
scendant is  too  small,  since  that  average  would 
have  kept  the  population  stationary,  an  aver- 
age of  three  is  too  high,  as  that  is  an  increase 
of  fifty  per  cent,  every  thirty  years,  an  average 
which  few  countries  other  than  the  United 
States  could  show. 

The  second  error  is  that  intermarriages 
among  descendants  must  be  allowed  for.  Say 
that  owing  to  these  errors  the  result  of  the  cal- 
culation is  twenty  thousand  times  too  much,  it 
would  still  result  that  every  man  of  English- 
speaking  race  is  descended  from  the  Conqueror. 
Reduce  it  as  much  more  as  .you  like  and  the 
chances  are  yet  strong  that  any  given  man  of 


MRS.  FLOYD. 

Granddaughter  of  Abraham  Enloe. 


your  acquaintance,  as  well  as  yourself,  is  prob- 
ably a  descendant  of  the  victor  of  Hastings." 

Apropos  to  this  the  distinguished  Judge 
says,  and  truly  :  "  The  doctrine  of  heredity 
has  some  force  in  it,  but  much  that  is  called 
heredity  is  simply  the  effect  of  environment." 

There  is  much  of  interest  here  in  the 
study  of  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
especially  as  viewed  from  the  North  Caro- 
lina tradition.  The  history  of  the  Enloes, 
from  its  remotest  period,  illustrates  the  force 
of  a  wise  selection,  both  as  to  heredity  and 
environment.  This  is  shown  most  clearly 
in  the  ease  with  which  they  have  held 
their  own  in  the  race  for  Anglo-Saxon  su- 
premacy. From  the  time  of  their  coming 
to  the  Colonies  from  across  the  water  until 
now,  their  history  shows  that  they  have  occu- 
pied the  same  stable,  reputable  station  in  soci- 
ety— the  best  circle  of  the  middle  class ;  the 
class  that  constitutes  the  salt  of  civilization, 
the  saving-grace  element  of  the  race. 


i66 

Three  Enloe  brothers,  forebears  of  the  fam- 
ily, landed  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  in  Maryland.  They  came  from  Scot- 
land and  England.  One  of  these  brothers 
settled  on  Lord  Baltimore's  land,  and  reared  a 
family.  The  other  two  went  from  Maryland 
to  South  Carolina  and  made  their  home  in 
York  district. 

These  old  Enloes  were  school-teachers  by 
profession — men  of  liberal  education.  From 
these  three  men  have  sprung  a  numerous 
progeny,  scattered  over  Maryland,  South  Caro- 
lina, North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  Illinois,  Missouri,  California  and 
Texas.  It  is  remarkable  the  number  of  strong 
men  throughout  this  long  line.  We  fearlessly 
invite  any  one  who  may  feel  skeptical  as  to 
this  assertion  to  investigate  for  himself. 

All  down  the  line  from  the  day  when  the 
South  Carolina  grandsires  began  to  "train the 
young  idea  to  shoot,"  to  the  present  when  they 
sit  in  State  legislatures,  in  Congress  and  upon 


167 

the  bench,  the  Knloes  have  undoubtedly  con- 
tributed materially  to  the  building  of  the  Re- 
public. They  have  marched  in  the  forefront 
of  frontier  settlement,  undaunted  by  the  stern- 
est difficulties.  They  have  introduced  civil 
government  in  the  wilderness,  and  modestly, 
yet  liberally,  contributed  to  the  support  of  its 
institutions.  They  have  helped  make,  con- 
strue and  enforce  the  laws  by  which  Jhey  have 
been  governed.  Wherever  duty  called,  in 
peace  or  war,  they  have  cheerfully  responded. 

Wherever  they  have  dwelt,  they  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  for  intelligence,  indus- 
try and  probity.  Wherever  they  have  planted 
themselves,  thrifty  farmers,  successful  mer- 
chants, physicians,  jurists  and  legislators  have 
sprung  up. 

Physically  they  are  rather  large,  tall,  slen- 
der, but  raw-boned  as  a  rule,  and  sinewy.  Men- 
tally they  are  vigorous  and  alert,  and  through- 
out the  line,  in  an  individual  here  and  there, 
there  is  a  vein  of  natural  humor.  One  instance 


I 

^Mf    ,.,,  1    ,     _      —  _  -   _    _ 
_  i — 


"  "       ~^_     ^ 7       ^  *_  "    -          _  *  ~  _  _  7*1^       ~      ~ .  "    "I  _  "T* ._ 

Ar>  ttmmjmymrtfa  mhirh  1^>  w^c  ttwm—wi  with 

t     .1 1"  "t     I-rt  _    U  f  .rt'l 

-  -tJ  -J-_i:  '-t 


:      .1-r      :  ..     ".        . .  _'        "          .  -  T 


:-::  ,e:ii"  t,;    :_  _'•  ;r~_i.    ~~-~.  ..-.'- 


TBnescUcfltosainclhc 
-Jit  l' 

".-      _.     . 

_  -•  _      . 


of 

:::> 


__^-.       1-;          .        .T      -~-..7. 


Jfcirtih 


KTLUAM  A.  EXLOE. 
->;  -  .:  _-. :  r:_Liii:  ;.:..•;, 


169 

ing,  in  this  place,  is  the  proof  which  these 
letters  afford  of  the  general  accuracy  of  tra- 
dition, together  with  the  commendable  pride 
and  care  with  which  the  Enloes  preserve  their 
name  and  family  identity  : 

DILLSBORO,  N.  C.,  January  28,  1899. 
Jas.  H.  Cathey,  Esq.,  Sylva,  N.  C. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  found  me  in 
the  grasp  of  the  grippe,  but  I  shall  be  pleased 
to  answer  your  questionos  as  best  I  can. 

My  ancestors  were  of  Scotch  and  English 
descent  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  trace 
them.  They  came  to  this  country  (that  isr 
direct)  from  England. 

My  father's  given  name  was  Scroup.  This- 
name  was  always  a  mystery  to  me  on  account 
of  its  peculiarity.  I  could  not  account  for  it 
until  I  came  across  it  in  an  old  English  history. 
I  found  in  this  history  that  there  once  lived  in 
England  a  family  whose  surname  was  Scroup, 
and  that  they  owned  a  large  estate  which  de- 
scended under  that  name. 


170 

On  finding  this  name  in  English  history,  and 
recalling  that  neither  I  nor  any  one  else  whom  I 
had  ever  met  in  this  country  had  ever  heard 
of  the  name  Scroup  outside  of  my  immediate 
family,  I  became  quite  convinced,  the  orig- 
inals having  set  sail  from  there,  that  my  fam- 
ily on  some  side  were  of  English  stock. 

From  the  best  information  -I  have,  there 
were  three  brothers  of  the  original  Enloes 
who  came  from  the  old  country.  They  made 
their  first  stop  in  Maryland,  where  one  of 
them  staid  and  raised  a  family.  One  of  them 
emigrated  to  York  District,  South  Carolina. 
This  was  my  great-grandfather.  I  think  his 
name  was  Gilbert. 

My  grandfather,  Abraham  Enloe,  came 
-over  to  Rutherford  county,  North  Carolina, 
and  married  there  a  Miss  Egerton.  He  after- 
ward moved  just  above  the  Indian  Mission, 
then  to  Ocona  Lufta,  in  Buncombe  county, 
where  he  resided  till  his  death.  He  raised 
nine  sons  and  seven  daughters.  The  other 


CAPT.  WM.  A.  ENLOE 
At  at  Earlier  Age. 


brother  of  my  great-grandfather,  and  one  ot 
the  original  three,  went  to  Middle  Tennessee 
and  settled.  He  raised  a  considerable  family. 
One  of  his  descendants,  B.  A.  Enloe,  repre- 
sented the  Eighth  Tennessee  district  in  Con- 
gress for  several  successive  terms. 

Some  of  the  Yorkville  branch  of  the  family 
moved  to  Georgia  and  elsewhere.  Those  in 
Georgia  got  to  spelling  their  name  "  Inlow," 
instead  of  Enloe.  I  visited  the  old  gentle- 
man— the  head  of  the  Georgia  branch.  I 
found  we  were  of  the  same  stock.  He  told 
me  that  when  he  went  to  Georgia,  people 
there  were  inclined  to  spell  the  name  "In- 
low";  they  kept  it  up;  he  did  not  file  his  ob- 
jection, and  he  finally  found  himself  illus- 
trating the  doctrine  that  custom  eventually 
becomes  law,  and  writing  it  himself  the  same 
way. 

Judge  Enloe,  who  was  assassinated  at  Elli- 
j  ay,  Georgia,  by  "bushwhackers,"  during  the 
war,  was  this  old  gentleman's  son.  Hon.  W. 


172 

Burder  Ferguson,  of  Waynesville,  N.  C.,  read 
law  under  Judge  Euloe. 

As  to  my  grandfather  Abraham  Enloe's  in- 
telligence, he  was  naturally  of  strong  mind, 
and  was  well  educated  for  a  man  of  his  time. 
He  was  a  justice  of  the  peace,  an  office  of  no 
little  importance  in  pioneer  days.  He  did 
the  official  writing  for  his  neighborhood. 
Yours  truly, 

WILLIAM  A.  ENLOE. 

MULBERRY  GROVE,  ILL.,  Sept  16, 1895. 
/as.  H.  Cat  hey,  Esq.,  Sylva,  N.  C. 

DEAR  SIR:— Yours  of  the  I4th  inst  to 
liand,  and  I  hasten  to  reply. 

I  am  unable  to  throw  any  light  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Lincoln's  origin,  further  than  looks — 
physical  appearance. 

Abe  Lincoln  was  a  long>  bony  man,  as  are 
all  the  Enloes  I  have  ever  seen.  As  to  his 
father  being  an  Enloe,  I  know  nothing. 

I  will "  now  give  you,  as  near  as  I  can,  a 
-brief  history  of  my  part  of  the  Enloe  family. 


My  father's  name  was  James ;  his  father's 
name  was  Ashael ;  his  father  was  Isaac  En- 
loe,  a  Scotchman.  Isaac  Enloe  was  a  Revo- 
lutionary patriot  and  soldier.  There  were 
two  brothers  of  the  old  Scotch  stock  who  set- 
tled in  York  county,  South  Carolina.  My 
father  and  grandfather  moved  to  Davidson 
county,  Tenn.,  I  think  about  the  year  1808, 
where  my  grandfather  Ashael  taught  school. 
(See  history  of  Davidson  county,  Tenn.) 
About  the  year  1816  they  moved  to  Illinois, 
where  we  have  remained  ever  since. 

As  to  myself,  I  served  through  the  entire 
war,  '61—5,  in  an  Illinois  regiment.  I  was 
not  in  North  Carolina  during  the  war,  but 
had  a  brother  who  was  with  Sherman  there. 
I  was  a  First  Lieutenant  in  the  Gulf  Depart- 
ment after  Vicksburg,  and  I  will  say  that  al- 
though I  fought  the  South  for  nearly  four 
years,  a^d  got  mixed  up  with  the  Johnnies  in 
many  an  unpleasant  place  (at  least  to  me),  I 
was  never  captured  until  years  after  Lee  quit 


174 


at  Appomattox.  In  1871  I  was  taken  in  by 
a  North  Carolina  gal.  She  waged  a  war  on 
the  aggressive,  and  came  all  the  way  to  Illi- 
nois to  get  to  capture  me.  Her  father  was  in 
the  Confederate  army.  I  think  this  is  as  it 
should  be — mix  the  people  up  and  put  an  end 
to  difference  and  distance. 

I  will  send  you  a  letter  I  received  some 
time  ago  from  Dr.  Isaac  N.  Enloe,  of  Jefferson 
City,  Missouri.  Hope  this  may  be  of  some 
service  to  you. 

Respectfully  yours, 

SAM  G.  ENLOE. 

JEFFERSON  CITY,  Mo.,  May  5,  1894. 
Sam  G.  Enloe,  Mulberry  Grove,  III. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  in  regard  to  our 
family  and  relationship  to  hand.  I  am  satis- 
fied we  are  of  the  same  stock.  , 

From  my  oldest  brother,  James,  who  has 
heard  my  grandfather  speak  of  his  ancestors, 
I  have  the  following :  The  first  of  the  Enloe 


J.  FRANK  ENLOE. 
Son  of  Wesley  and  Grandson  of  Abe  Enloe. 


stock  or  family,  consisting  of  two  brothers 
named  Isaac  and  Enoch,  both  school-teachers, 
settled  in  South  Carolina.  Previous  to  going 
to  South  Carolina  they  lived  for  a  while, 
teaching,  in  Maryland.  This  was  some  time 
near  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Both  originally  came  from  Scotland.  My 
great-grandfather  Enoch  was  the  son  of  one 
of  these  Enloe  brothers ;  Isaac,  I  think.  I 
have  no  positive  information  to  that  effect,  but 
my  great-grandfather  must  have  had  brothers.. 
Isaac  and  Enoch  Enloe  both  married  in 
South  Carolina  and  raised  large  families. 
One  of  these  families  became  quite  wealthy 
and  remained  in  that  State.  Members  of  the 
other  family,  about  the  year  1808,  moved  to 
Tennessee.  In  1808  my  grandfather  moved 
from  South  Carolina  to  Tennessee.  My 
grandfather  married  a  sister  of  his  brother 
Isaac's  wife.  Isaac  had  three  sons,  Benjamin, 
James  and  Joel.  Ben  still  lives  in  Tennessee, 
and  is  the  father  of  Benjamin  A.  Enloe,  Con- 


176 

gressman  from  the  eighth  Tennessee  district. 
James  and  Joel  are  physicians,  and  reside  in 
Nashville,  Tenii. 

My  grandfather,  James  Enloe,  was  born  in 
York  district,  South  Carolina,  February  igth, 
1793.  He  moved  from  there  to  Tennessee  in 
1808,  and  in  1828  he  moved  to  Missouri.  In 
Missouri  he  entered  land  and  farmed,  devoting 
no  little  time  to  horses  and  politics.  He 
represented  Cole  county  in  the  State  Legisla- 
ture once,  and  Moniteau,  after  it  was  cut  off 
from  Cole,  twice. 

My  father  Enoch  was  born  in  Barren 
county,  Kentucky,  in  1814,  where  my  grand- 
father had  moved  temporarily.  He  came 
with  grandfather  to  Missouri  in  1828.  My 
father  married  a  Miss  Murray.  Of  this  union 
there  were,  in  all,  fourteen  children.  Eleven 
lived  to  be  grown — seven  sons  and  four  daugh- 
ters. One  of  my  brothers  is  a  merchant,  two  of 
us  are  physicians,  and  the  others  are  farmers. 
Yours  truly,  ISAAC  N.  ENI.OE. 


In  this  letter  of  Dr.  I.  N.  Enloe  we  have 
-eliminated  a  great  deal  relating  to  his  imme- 
diate family,  of  the  Enloes.  We  have  meant 
simply  to  trace  the  name  toward  its  original. 
There  are,  however,  two  things  we  have  left 
out  which  we  deem  worthy  of  mention  here — 
the  frequent  appearance  of  Abraham,  showing 
that  it  was  a  common  name  in  the  Enloe 
family,  and  the  certain  indication  that  the 
Enloes  were  superstitiously  observant  of  the 
scriptural  injunction,  "  to  be  fruitful  and  mul- 
tiply, and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it." 

It  is  only  just  to  say  that  each  of  the  fore- 
going letters  is  a  courteous  response  to  urgent 
and  repeated  solicitations. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WISDOM   AND   PROPHECY. 

From  Mr.  Lincoln's  Inaugural  Address  of  4th  March, 
1861  :— 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly 
and  well  upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing- 
valuable  can  be  lost  by  taking  time.  If  there 
be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of  you  in  hot  haste 
to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take  deliber- 
ately, that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking 
time  ;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated  -by 
it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied  still 
have  the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and  on 
the  sensitive  point,  the  laws  of  your  own  fram- 
ing under  it,  while  the  new  administration 
will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it  would,  to 
change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that  you 
who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the 
dispute,  there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for 


179 

precipitate  action.  Intelligence,  patriotism, 
Christianity  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who 
has  never  yet  forsaken  his  favored  land,  are 
still  competent  to  adjust  in  the  best  way  all 
our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momen- 
tous issue  of  civil  war.  The  government  will 
not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no  conflict 
without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy 
the  government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  oath  to  "  preserve,  protect  and  defend 

it" 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies, 
but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though 
passion  may  have  strained,  it  cannot  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  cord  of  mem- 
ory, stretching  from  every  battle-field  and 
patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth- 
stone all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell 
the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched, 


i8o 

as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature. 


From  his  famous  letter  to  Horace  Greeley  : — 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  be  pursuing," 
as  you  say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one 
in  doubt.  I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would 
-save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  sooner  the  national  authority  can 
be  restored  the  nearer  the  Union  will  be — the 
Union  as  it  was. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time 
destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union> 
and  not  either  to  save  or  to  destroy  slavery. 

If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing 
any  slave,  I  would  do  it — if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it — if  I  could 
save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  do  that.  What  I  do  about  slavery  and 
the  colored  race,  I  do  because  it  helps  to  save 
the  Union. 


From  his  message  of  March  6,  1862: — 

I  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  resolution 
by  your  honorable  body,  which  shall  be  sub- 
stantially as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States,  in  order 
to  co-operate  with  any  State  which  may  adopt 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery,  give  to  such  State 
pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State,  in  its 
discretion,  to  compensate  it  for  the  inconve- 
nience, public  and  private,  produced  by  such 
change  of  system. 

On  the  I4th  August,  1862,  he  received  a  deputation  of 
colored  men,  with  whom  he  held  an  interview  on  the 
subject  of  colonization,  in  which  he,  among  other  things, 
said: — 

It  now  becomes  my  duty,  as  it  has  long 
been  my  inclination,  to  favor  the  colonization 
of  the  people  of  African  descent  residing  in 
the  United  States.  Why  should  the  people  of 
your  race  be  colonized,  and  where?  Why  should 
they  leave  this  country?  This,  perhaps,  is 
the  first  question  for  proper  consideration. 
You  and  we  are  different  races.  We  have 


182 

between  us  a  broader  difference  than  exists 
between  almost  any  other  two  races.  Whether 
it  is  right  or  wrong  I  need  not  discuss ;  but 
this  physical  difference  is  a  great  disadvan- 
tage to  us  both,  as  I  think. 

Your  race  suffer  very  greatly,  many  of 
them  by  living  among  us,  while  ours  suffer 
from  your  presence.  In  a  word,  we  suffer 
on  each  side. 

If  this  is  admitted,  it  affords  a  reason,  at 
least,  why  we  should  be  separated. 

You,  here,  are  freemen,  I  suppose.  Per- 
haps you  have  long  been  free,  or  all  your 
lives.  Your  race  are  suffering,  in  my  judg- 
ment, the  greatest  wrong  inflicted  on  any 
people.  But  even  when  you  cease  to  be 
slaves,  you  are  yet  far  removed  from  being 
placed  on  an  equality  with  the  white  race. 
You  are  cut  off  from  many  of  the  advantages 
which  the  white  race  enjoys.  The  aspiration 
of  men  is  to  enjoy  equality  with  the  best 
when  free,  but  on  this  broad  continent  not  a 


single  man  of  your  race  is  made  the  equal  of 
a  single  man  of  ours.  Go  where  you  are 
treated  the  best,  and  the  ban  is  still  upon  you. 
I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  this,  but  I  treat  it  as 
a  fact  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  I  cannot 
alter  it  if  I  would.  It  is  the  fact  about  which 
we  all  think  and  feel  alike,  I  and  you. 

We  look  to  our  condition.  Owing  to  the  exist- 
ence of  two  races  on  this  continent,  I  need 
not  recount  to  you  the  effects  upon  white  men 
growing  out  of  the  institution  of  slavery.  I 
believe  in  its  general  evil  effects  on  the  white 
race.  See  our  present  condition — the  country 
engaged  in  a  war !  our  white  men  cutting  one- 
another's  throats ;  none  knowing  how  far  it 
will  extend,  and  then  consider  what  we  know 
to  be  the  truth.  But  for  your  race  among  us 
there  could  not  be  war,  although  many  men 
engaged  on  either  side  do  not  care  for  you  one 
way  or  the  other. 

Nevertheless,  I  repeat,  without  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery,  and  the  colored  race  as  a  basis, 


1 84 

the  war  could  not  have  an  existence.  It  is 
better  for  us  both,  therefore,  that  we  be  sepa- 
rated. 


His  speech  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication  of  the 
battle-field  of  Gettysburg  :— 

Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fath- 
ers brought  forth  on  this  continent  a  new  na- 
tion, conceived  in  liberty  and  dedicated  to  the 
proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 
Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  test- 
ing whether  that  nation  so  dedicated  can  long 
endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of 
that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  por- 
tion of  that  field  as  a  final  resting-place  for 
those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation 
might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate — 
we  cannot  consecrate — we  cannot  hallow  this 
ground.  The  brave  men  who  Struggled  here 
have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power 
to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note 


185 

nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it 
can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for 
us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  ta 
the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is, 
rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great 
task  remaining  before  us,  that  from  these  hon- 
ored dead  we  take  increased  devotion  for  which 
they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion; 
that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead 
shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that  this  nation 
under  God  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom ; 
and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth. 


NOTE: — For  the  foregoing  extracts,  except  the  Gettys- 
burg address,  the  author  is  under  obligation  to  Raymond's 
Life  of  Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
ADDENDA. 


PART  i.  AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

Since  the  making  of  this  little  book  inter- 
est has  steadily  increased  in  the  subject  of  the 
paternal  origin  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the 
public  faith  has  as  steadily  waxed  in  the  theory 
upheld  by  this  narrative.  The  book  has 
passed  through  two  editions  ;  the  last  is  now 
exhausted  and  the  third,  containing  addi- 
tional, vital  evidence,  is  this  you  hold  in  your 
hand. 

Every  statement  of  fact  in  this  volume  is 
the  solemn  statement  of  persons — intelligent 
admirers  of  Mr.  Lincoln — the  equal  of  the 
most  conservative,  trustworthy  and  patriotic 
in  the  country. 

The  first  two  editions  have  circulated  in 
every  State  in  the  Union  ;  have  gone  to  Can- 
ada, Mexico,  England,  Scotland  and  India. 


i87 

The  author  has  received  letters  by  the 
hundred  from  representative  citizens  mani- 
festing much  interest  in  the  facts  thus  made 
public  for  the  first  time.  Not  a  few  of  these 
letters  are  from  gentlemen  familiar  with  the 
time  and  men  contemporaneous  with  Mr. 
Lincoln,  some  of  whom  knew  Mr.  Lincoln 
personally.  Distinguished  scholars,  divines, 
statesmen  and  publicists  of  all  sections  have 
evinced  previous  knowledge  of  the  existence 
of  a  foundation  for  this  record,  and  attach  un- 
mistakable credence  thereto. 

Truth  is,  historic  record  and  the  public 
voice  this  narrative  has  elicited,  unite  in  show- 
ing that  the  public  have  been  incredulous  of 
the  chapter  on  the  paternal  origin  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  as  written  by  his  popular  biographers. 

No  biography  is  complete,  no  biography  is 
faithful  that  has  not  an  open,  ringing  an- 
nouncement of  the  parentage  of  the  subject. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  biographers  may  be  divided 
into  two  groups  touching  his  parentage : 
The  first,  those  about  whom  the  light  had 
shone  and  whose  sense  of  honor  and  profes- 
sional responsibility  forbade  their  passing 


1 88 


unnoted  the  fact  that  light  revealed  ;  and 
the  second,  those  who  knew  nor  cared,  more 
than  to  apotheosize  their  subject. 

Less  than  four  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  hundreds 
of  biographers  make  up  the  first  class.  Neither 
class  has  produced  an  authentic  biography. 
The  first  are  the  victim  of  a  reckless  credulity 
and  unnatural  public  sentiment ;  the  second 
have  not  the  full  courage  of  their  conviction. 

Messrs.  John  Locke  Scripps,  William  H. 
Herndon  and  Ward  H.  Lamon  are  the  first 
class. 

Mr.  Scripps  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  biog- 
rapher and  obtained '  his  information  from 
Mr.  Lincoln's  own  lips. 

Mr.  Herndon  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  law-partner 
and  intimate  personal  friend  of  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Mr.  Lamon,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal 
acquaintance,  had  unrestricted  use  of  the 
original  manuscript  of  Mr.  Herndon.  These 
three  enjoyed  peculiar  advantages  for  writing 
an  authentic  personal  biography  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Mr.  Scripps  wrote  at  a  time  when  his  esti- 


189 

mate  must,  necessarily,  have  been  shallow 
and  incomplete.  Mr.  Herndon  enjoyed  a  much 
wider  and  calmer  perspective.  Mr.  Lamon 
came  into  possession  of  fruits  of  the  labors  of 
both,  added  to  his  own  research,  verification 
and  contemplation.  But  neither  of  these  has 
shown  himself  an  ideal  biographer  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  They  have  evinced  fatal  lack 
of  industry,  courage  and  candor.  Abraham 
Lincoln  was,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  soul  of 
these  virtues.  If  the  life  of  any  man  in  hu- 
man annals  is  entitled  to  fidelic  record  it  is 
that  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  His  distinguish- 
ing mark  was  the  fidelity  his  character  bore 
to  the  mother  that  brought  him  forth — his 
life-likeness  to  the  old  Earth. 

In  simple  naturalness,  unadulterated  plain- 
ness he  stands  alone,  not  quite  approached  by 
any  other  great  man  of  history.  Even  his 
physical  form  was  so  plain  that  it  verged  upon 
the  grotesque.  The  movement  of  his  body 
and  action  of  his  mind  were  ordered  by  the 
laws  of  simplicity,  freedom  and  truth.  No 
human  dogma,  however  universal,  could  have 
influenced  him  against  his  conviction  any 


190 

more  than  it  could  have  influenced  the  cur- 
rents of  the  wind  or  the  sea.  His  soul  was 
the  remorseless  hater  of  sham  and  counterfeit 
and  error,  and  that  which  maketh  a  lie  in  any 
and  every  guise. 

There  is  not  another  such  composition  in 
ancient  or  modern  annals.  There  is  no  other 
so  profound  a  study.  Withal,  to  the  patient 
and  faithful  and  courageous  he  is  possible  of 
solution.  Once  the  correct  vantage-ground 
is  reached  there  is  serene  and  satisfying  con- 
templation. Nowhere  is  there  promise  of 
larger  reward  for  diligent  investigation.  The 
unknowable  in  him  is  a  small  and  unimpor- 
tant moiety. 

Hitherto  the  world  has  been  unable  to  ac- 
count for  Abraham  Lincoln's  being,  reason- 
ing from  orthodox,  human  hypotheses.  His 
origin  and  antecedents  may  be  known.  His 
advent  into  the  world  was  not  miraculous. 
He  never  claimed  supernatural  origin.  He 
came  into  the  world,  primarily,  as  all  other 
human  beings  come.  If  he  were  the  child  of 
a  special  providence,  so  be  it.  He  was  the 
child  of  natural  parents.  True  he  was  the 


hero  of  a  crisis.  Like  the  Conqueror,  and 
Cromwell,  and  Luther,  and  Wesley,  the 
creator  of  an  era — the  cohesive  spirit  of  a 
world-movement.  But,  after  all,  he  was  no 
more  divine  or  inspired  than  they.  He  was 
intensely  human  with  a  superlatively  fine 
moral  fiber — fine  as  that  of  Washington  ;  ru- 
dimentarily  as  fine  as  that  of  Robert  Edward 
Lee — two  of  the  climaxes  of  human  perfec- 
tion in  sixty  centuries. 

Events  of  his  remarkable  career  bear  wit- 
ness to  his  sustained  fidelity  to  the  loftier 
human  instincts  —  instincts  inherent  and 
schooled  in  the  university  of  nature — nature 
in  her  best  estates.  Nature  was  always  jeal- 
ous of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  acknowledged 
no  master  and  but  one  mistress — Nature.  In 
boyhood  he  played  the  innocent  pranks  and 
dreamt  the  roseate  dreams  of  that  happy  es- 
tate ;  in  manhood  to  the  tragic  end  he  played 
with  nature's  master  hand  upon  the  harp  of 
the  souls  of  men.  An  upright  appreciation 
of  these  primal  elements  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's character,  as  well  as  a  due  regard  for 
the  rights  of  posterity  should  prompt  his  biog- 


192 


rapher  to  adopt  as  his  criterion  the  well  known 
rule  of  Ciceio  :  "Neither  dare  to  say  anything 
that  is  false  or  fear  to  say  anything  that  is 
true,  nor  give  any  just  suspicion  of  favor  or 
disaffection." 

A  fit  biographer  of  Abraham  Lincoln  shall 
be  the  man  of  rugged  honesty  and  patient 
intrepidity — a  Boswell  in  detail,  a  Carlyle  in 
faith,  even  if  "  Boswell  must  be  paid  for 
showing  his  bear,"  and  if  Carlyle  must  moil 
for  "seventeen  years  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  Frederick." 

Time  may  not  yet  be  full  for  a  just  bio- 
graphical portraiture  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
But  there  is  no  danger  in  asserting  that  hith- 
erto his  biographers  have  been  provincial  in 
concept  and  partizan  in  expression. 

The  work  of  Mr.  Win.  H.  Herndon  ap- 
proaches most  nearly  the  exception. 

The  first  (in  point  of  time)  biographies  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  are  necessarily  shallow  and  inac- 
curate. These  were  written  in  haste  from 
motives  of  personal  and  party  interest. 

The  saner  judgment  of  his  biographer  of 
more  recent  years  has  been  eclipsed  by  the 


193 


nearness  of  the  marvelous  events  of  his  offi- 
cial career,  the  magnitude  of  the  results  of 
the  crisis  in  which'  Providence  ordained  him 
the  principal  factor,  and  his  own  strange, 
gigantic,  fascinating  personality. 

In  short,  four  things  have  combined  to  pre- 
vent the  real  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  .  blind 
hero-worship  ;  aristocratic  sentiment ;  false 
modesty  and  aversion  to  laborious  research — 
four  things  Abraham  Lincoln  trampled  under 
his  feet  as  an  elephant  would  trample  the  mire 
of  the  jungle. 

Little  wonder  Abraham  Lincoln's  origin 
has  been  the  subject  of  imagination  and  con- 
jecture. In  childhood  and  youth  his  place 
of  abode  a  squalid  camp  in  a  howling  wilder- 
ness ;  his  meal  an  ashen  crust ;  his  bed  a  pile 
of  leaves;  his  nominal  guardian  a  shiftless  and 
worthless  wanderer ;  his  intimate  associates 
-and  putative  relatives  a  gross,  illiterate  and 
superstitious  rabble. 

Little  wonder  that  in  some  quarters  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  fame  has  bordered  upon  deifi- 
cation. His  all  but  miraculous  burst  from 
the  wilderness  into  the  nation's  eye ;  his  he- 


194 

roic  and  glorious  life-achievement ;  his  sudden 
passing  at  the  assassin's  h'and,  these,  with  the 
element  of  sadness  which  was  the  inseparable 
genius  of  his  nature  and  culminating  incident 
of  his  fortune,  are  the  elements  needful  to 
magnify  the  subject  beyond  human  propor- 
tion. Abraham  Lincoln  passed  from  the 
mountain  top  of  earthly  greatness  into  the 
vast  unknown  in  a  halo  of  heroism,  mysti- 
cism and  sorrow ;  and  doubtless  he  shall  con- 
tinue for  all  time  to  come  to  draw  from  all 
mankind  admiration,  wonder  and  tears.  In 
the  glamor  of  this  mingled  mist  and  glare  the 
huge  proportion  of  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  human  of  men  has  been  despoiled  by 
the  rude  hand  of  the  ignorant  enthusiast. 
The  great,  refreshing  spectacle  has  been  bun- 
gled. The  pity  of  it !  As  a  result  of  the 
operation  of  these  abnormal  influences  the 
entire  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  has  suffered, 
but  no  chapter  like  that  on  his  origin.  Here 
was  something  out  of  the  ordinary — some- 
thing unseen ;  but  instead  of  allowing  the' 
light  to  shine  into  this  grotto  in  a  great  life, 
fanatic  biographers  and  other  sinister  and 


195 

designing  persons,  have  endeavored  to  mag- 
nify and  involve  the  mystery  for  purposes  of 
heathen  worship,  or  have  sought  to  come  into 
possession  of  it  that  they  might  destroy  it. 
The  paternal  origin  of  Abraham  Lincoln : 
this  is  the  secret.  Light,  once  deflected  here 
and  an  hundred  other  nooks  and  corners  in 
his  personality,  will  light  up  and  become 
plain  and  comprehensible. 

To  evade  or  conceal  a  cardinal  fact  relative 
to  Abraham  Lincoln  is  not  only  a  moral 
wrong,  but  a  reflection  upon  his  character 
and  a  violation  of  his  memory.  The  nature 
of  his  origin  is  primarily  indispensable  to  an 
intelligent,  not  to  say  full,  conception  of  his 
character.  The  correct  source  of  his  origin 
is,  practically,  universally  accepted  as  a  mat- 
ter of  doubt — an  unsettled  question — an  un- 
known quantity — in  his  life.  If  no  trust- 
worthy means  were  in  existence  or  accessible 
for  the  removal  of  the  doubt,  for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  question,  moral  responsibility 
would  not  obtain  and  the  mystery  would  con- 
tinue. But,  fortunately  for  posterity,  there  is 
in  existence  and  available  all  the  means  neces- 


196 

sary  to  a  final,  correct  and  satisfactory  solu- 
tion. Using  the  approved  methods  of  the 
historian  in  collecting  data,  there  is  not  a  fact 
in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  easier  of  establishment  than  that 
of  his  real  paternal  origin. 

There  could  be  but  three  ways  of  account- 
ing for  the  being  of  Abraham  Lincoln  or  any 
other  man :  First,  that  he  was  of  natural  legit- 
imate origin;  second,  that  he  was  of  natural 
illegitimate  origin  ;  and  third,  that  he  was  of 
miraculous  origin.  The  first  hypothesis  has 
been  taken  for  granted  as  true  and  passed 
without  further  thought  by  the  casual  layman 
and  biographical  novice.  The  second  hy- 
pothesis or  theory  has  been  affirmed  by  tradi- 
tion so  well  defined,  closely  connected  and 
emphatic  that  the  element  of  myth  is  entirely 
absent ;  by  the  two  most  intimate  and  dis- 
tinguished personal  biographers  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln after  the  most  laborious,  exhaustive  and 
conscientious  research  ;  and  by  an  extensive, 
intelligent  and  authentic  public  consensus. 
The  third  hypothesis  has  been  whispered  by 
the  few,  and  voiced  by  at  least  one  reputable 


eulogist  who  said  that  "Abraham  Lincoln  was 
without  ancestors,  fellows  or  successors"  It  is 
barely  possible  that  some  of  Mr.  Watterson's 
contemporaries  should  construe  him  literally, 
and  that  mankind  generally  a  thousand  years 
hence  would  do  so,  it  is  more  than  probable. 
Granted  that  the  third  hypothesis  is  unrea- 
sonable, the  settlement  of  the  question  turns 
upon  the  weight  of  evidence  between  the  first 
and  second. 

It  is  the  office  of  these  pages  to  submit  tes- 
timony in  support  of  the  second  theory — that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  of  illegitimate  origin, 
his  father  being  Abraham  J£nloe,  and  not 
Thomas  Lincoln  or  any  one  else. 

In  addition  to  the  sound,  sustained  and 
perennial  tradition  of  North  Carolina,  the 
author  submits  in  this  addenda  extrinsic  his- 
torical data  and  other  cumulative  evidence. 


Before  giving  to  the  public  the  record  of 
the  paternity  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the 
present  enlarged  form,  we  desire  to  say  that 
the  data  bearing  upon  the  subject  is  cumu- 
lative, and  promises  to  continue  to  be  for  an 


198 

indefinite  time.  There  is  other  material  now 
in  sight,  but  inaccessible  for  the  present,  or  at 
all,  without  the  expenditure  of  much  time 
and  no  little  money. 

This  enlarged  edition  is  the  result  of  the 
acquisition  of  several  years,  and,  when  time 
and  opportunity  permits,  facts  that  may  come 
to  light  that  are  worth  while,  will  be  included 
in  a  subsequent  edition.  Now  that  this  in- 
vestigation has  been  begun  it  is  our  duty  to 
accept,  preserve  and  publish  all  the  material, 
trustworthy  facts  bearing  upon  the  subject. 

Two  things,  we  contend,  our  research  have 
disclosed  beyonj^  question  :  First,  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  illegitimate,  and  second, 
that  his  father  was  an  Abraham  Enloe. 

Another  thing  is  clear  as  a  result  of  our 
research  :  That  there  has  been  a  determined 
and  systematic  effort  on  the  part  of  at  least 
two  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  most  intimate  personal 
biographers  to  discover  the  truth  of  his  pater- 
nal origin  and  publish  the  same  to  the  world 
— these  biographers  were  William  H.  Hern- 
don,  his  law  partner,  and  Ward  H.  Lamon. 

Again,   there  is  another  fact  that  is,  as  a 


i99 

result  of  this  investigation,  equally  as  certain  : 
That  there  has  been  a  determined  and  sys- 
tematic war  of  suppression  and  destruction 
against  the  publication  and  dissemination  of 
the  truth  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  real  paternal  ori- 
gin by  certain  individuals. 

It  was  the  original  purpose  of  Mr.  Wm.  H. 
Herndon  to  write  a  rigidly  truthful  narrative 
of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  How  much 
this  purpose  was  influenced  or  prevented  is  a 
matter  that  is  familiar  to  persons  now  living. 

Mr.  Jessie  W.  Weik,  of  Greencastle,  In- 
diana, toward  the  last  in  the  preparation  of 
his  biography,  became  a  collaborator  with  Mr. 
Herndon.  In  1865  Mr.  Herndon  visited  the 
scenes  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  birth  and  early  years 
in  Kentucky,  as  did  Mr.  Weik,  later. 

These  personal  visits  to  Kentucky  were 
made  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the  truth 
pertaining  to  these  early  periods  in  the  life  of 
their  hero.  Mr.  Herndon  says  that  "Mr. 
Weik  spent  considerable  time  investigating 
the  truth  of  a  report  current  in  Bourbon 
county,  Kentucky,  that  Thomas  Lincoln  from 
one  Abraham  Inlow,  a  miller  there,  assumed 


200 


the  paternity  of  the  infant  child  of  a  poor  girl 
named  Nancy  Hanks,  and  after  marriage, 
moved  with  her  to  Washington  or  Hardin 
county,  where  the  son,  who  was  named  Abra- 
ham, after  his  real,  and  Lincoln  after  his 
putative  father,  was  born."  Mr.  Herndon 
does  not  say  that  Mr.  Weik  after  investiga- 
tion, found  the  report  to  be  untrue,  but,  in- 
stead, goes  on  at  considerable  length  to 
substantiate  the  report. 

See  suppressed  matter  following. 

This  much  may  be  found  in  the  suppressed 
three- volume  edition  of  Lincoln  by  Messrs. 
Herndon  and  Weik.  The  question  then  re- 
curs upon  the  fact  as  to  whether  there  was  an 
elaborate  investigation  of  the  illegitimate 
paternity  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  if  so,  did  they 
write  down  in  their  manuscript  for  posterity, 
the  complete  account  of  their  findings.  The 
facts  are  that  Mr.  Weik,  because  of  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  him,  receded  from  his 
original  position  of  independent  recorder  of 
truth  and  fact  and  destroyed  the  original 
manuscript. 

Mr.  Lamon  bought  from  Mr.  Herndon  the 


201 


use  of  his  original  manuscript,  paying  him 
three  thousand  dollars  therefor. 

But  Mr.  Weik  and  those  associated  with 
him  in  their  campaign  of  destruction,  were 
careful  to  make  way  with  every  volume  of 
Lamon  they  could  lay  hand  on. 

Through  Weik's  influence  other  valuable 
evidence  gathered  by  Mr.  Herndon  at  great 
expense  was  destroyed. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  facts  touching 
Abraham  Lincoln's  illegitimate  origin  as  first 
recorded  by  his  intimate  friend  and  law  part- 
ner between  whom  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  Mr. 
Horace  White  assures  us,  there  was  never  an 
unkind  word  or  thought,  are  three  editions 
removed  from  Mr.  Herndon's  original  manu- 
script. The  Lainon  biography  which  we 
count  as  one  edition,  it  having  within  its 
covers  the  original  Herndon  manuscript,  the 
three-volume  Life  by  Messrs.  Herndon  and 
Weik,  and  the  two-volume  edition  by  Messrs. 
Herndon  and  Weik. 

It  is  evident  that  the  three-volume  edition 
was  suppressed  because  of  the  statements  with 
regard  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  illegitimate  paternity,. 


2O2 


for  the  reason  that  these  are  the  identical 
statements  expurgated  in  the  last  or  two- 
volume  edition  of  Herndon  and  Weik. 

It  is  establishable  that  the  collaborator  of 
Mr.  Herndon,  who  was  the  collector  of  this 
illegitimate-paternity  data,  was  also  the  chief 
agent  in  the  destruction  of  it.  It  is  even 
more  remarkable  that  the  current  expurga- 
ted edition  in  two  volumes  contains  numerous 
hints  of  illegitimate  paternity  but  in  very 
subdued  form. 

These  facts  evidently  show  that  the  origi- 
nal findings  of  William  H.  Herndon  and 
Jesse  W.  Weik,  upon  the  question  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  paternity,  were  indubitable. 
This  being  admitted  the  facts  which  were 
published  in  meager  or  subdued  form  would 
indicate  the  facts  which  were  written  or  pub- 
lished in  complete  or  elaborate  form. 

And  more,  is  it  reasonable  that  two  reputa- 
ble citizens,  cultured  and  refined  gentlemen, 
trie  one  the  law-partner  and  life-long,  intimate 
friend,  and  the  other  an  ardent  admirer,  of  a 
man  among  the  greatest  and  most  illustrious 
of  the  time,  would,  as  his  personal  biogra- 


203 

pliers,  write  down  for  the  gaze  of  posterity  a 
rumor,  a  report  affecting  so  personal  and  vital 
a  subject  as  that  of  his  origin,  and  that,  too, 
in  defiance  of  the  well-known  canons  of 
society? 

In  view  of  these  facts  the  conclusion  is  in- 
evitable, leaving  the  North  Carolina  tradition 
entirely  out  of  the  question,  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  the  son  of  an  Abraham  Enloe  by 
Nancy  Hanks. 

We  shall  not  discuss  the  question  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  illegitimate  paternity  from  the  La- 
mon  biography  point  of  view  further  than  to 
invite  the  reader's  careful  attention  to  the 
entire  quotation  on  the  subject,  and  particu- 
larly to  the  allusions  to  the  relations  existing 
between  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Abraham  En- 
loe or  Inlow,  the  name  being  spelled  differ- 
ently in  different  localities. 

Mr.  Lamon's  opening  paragraphs  are  sig- 
nificant. He  says  almost  emphatically  that 
Lincoln  was  of  illegitimate  paternity.  He 
wrote  in  the  major  part  from  Mr.  Herndon's 
manuscript,  and  it  is  evident  that  he  kneiv 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  illegitimate. 


"Subsequent  references  to  the  "  Inlows,"  and 
to  "Abraham  Inlow,"  afford  strong  reason 
for  the  inference  that  he  knew  to  a  certainty 
the  fact  he  had  obliquely  though  unmistaka- 
bly stated  at  the  outset. 

It  were  far  better  had  Messrs.  Herndon  and 
Weik  and  Mr.  Lamon  written  and  published 
the  plain,  blunt  facts.  By  recording  a  rumor, 
a  vague  report,  these  biographers  lowered, 
vulgarized  and  jeopardized  their  office.  If, 
as  it  is  our  opinion  based  upon  thorough  in- 
vestigation, these  biographers  wrote  down 
the  true  facts  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  origin,  and 
these  facts  were  afterward  modified  and  ac- 
commodated by  others  to  the  end  that  they 
might  be  shadowed  with  doubt,  and  ulti- 
mately ignored  by  the  student  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  perpetrators  misjudged  mankind 
and  threw  a  challenge  in  the  teeth  of  the  very 
incident  they  were  designing  to  intercept. 
Somewhere  in  the  deep  of  the  heart  of  man- 
kind there  is  a  chamber  sacred  to  the  love  of 
truth.  The  tallest  and  whitest  heroes  of  his- 
tory are  the  martyrs  to  the  cause  of  truth. 


205 

The  most  universally  popular  of  the  works  of 
literature  is  the  book  of  truth. 

Had  the  Bible  depicted  only  the  fair,  the 
favored  and  the  far-famed  side  of  its  charac- 
ters— its  priests  and  prophets,  its  heroes  and 
poets,  its  rulers  and  its  peoples — it  had  long 
ago  been  torn  into  ten  thousand  times  its 
number  of  apparent  inconsistencies,  and  scat- 
tered to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  Then 
indeed  would  a  Voltaire  or  an  Ingersoll  have 
had  a  pic-nic.  But  it  deals  with  every  one  of 
its  characters,  save  Christ  the  Lord,  as  a  hu- 
man, and  records  the  truth  and  the  whole 
truth  about  each.  This  is  the  secret,  from 
the  human  side,  of  the  solidity  and  force  of 
the  book,  this  is  one  quality  which  led  Mr. 
Gladstone  to  characterize  it  as  "The  impreg- 
nable rock  of  the  Holy  Scriptures."  If  it 
were  anything  short  of  one  connected  tissue 
of  truth,  pleasant  and  unpleasant,  it  had  not 
merited  the  striking  metaphor. 

So  long  as  men  are  treated  as  human  there 
is  no  reason  for  the  distortion,  misrepresenta- 
tion or  suppression  of  the  facts  relating  to 
their  lives.  In  an  enlightened  country,  such 


as  ours,  to  deify  any  man,  however  great,  will 
prove  quite  a  difficult  if  not  a  hazardous  un- 
dertaking. Our  age  is  an  age  of  faith  based 
upon  sight,  truth  and  practicality.  Candor 
and  honesty  are  more  attractive  than  mist  and 
falsehood. 

It  is  an  age  when  the  people  demand  to 
know  all  the  material  facts  bearing  upon  the 
lives  of  their  leading  spirits.  Much  that  a 
man  is  is  accountable  for  in  his  origin.  A  man 
is  in  nowise  responsible  for  his  origin.  A 
knowledge  of  a  man's  origin  is  indispensable 
to  a  full  and  correct  insight  into  his  character. 
The  nature  of  a  man's  origin  can  not  in  any- 
wise affect  his  reputation.  Good  name  is 
adduced  from  the  acts,  the  deeds,  the  life  of 
the  man  and  not  from  his  antecedents.  False 
canons  may  smother  and  stultify  important 
truths  in  the  life  of  a  hero,  but  they  can  not 
destroy  them.  The  world  is  determined  that 
its  great  shall  not  be  hidden  from  it.  It  is 
eager  to  gaze  upon  them  in  the  light  of  noon- 
day. The  world  loves  to  look  at  the  thing  as 
it  is,  and,  in  its  final  judgment,  it  is  just.  It 
has  its  homage  for  strength  and  perfection, 


207 

and  its  charity  for  weakness  and  imperfection  ; 
its  emulation  for  virtue  and  contempt  for  vice. 

The  world  has  unfading  faith  in  the  ability 
of  the  good  name  and  fame  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln to  take  care  of  themselves.  It  don't  want 
any  Lincoln  apocrypha,  nor  Lincoln  apotheo- 
sization.  It  simply  wants  "  Honest  Abe"  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  it  wants  every  im- 
portant truth  and  fact  and  incident  bearing 
upon  his  character,  antecedent  and  succeed- 
ent  to  his  advent  in  the  world,  nicely,  artless- 
ly, justly.  But  to  recur  to  the  subject  under 
consideration  : 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  biographies 
of  Messrs.  Herndon  and  Weik,  and  of  Mr.  La- 
mon,  written  a  couple  of  decades  before  this 
tradition,  should  have  taken  note  of  the  iden- 
tical facts  herein  recorded,  namely,  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  illegitimate  and  that  Abraham 
Enloe  was  his  father.  At  the  time  of  the 
writing  of  their  biographies  nor  at  any  time 
subsequent,  so  far  as  is  known,  did  Messrs. 
Herndon  and  Weik  and  Mr.  Lamon  know  any- 
thing of  the  North  Carolina  tradition.  Not 
one  of  the  witnesses  for  the  North  Carolina 


208 


tradition,  at  the  time  the  testimony  was  taken, 
"had  ever  seen  a  copy  of  either  edition  of  these 
"biographies  or  knew  aught  of  their  contents. 
Another  and  remarkable  thing  is  that  the  two 
leading  facts  of  the  North.  Carolina  tradition 
-went  from  Kentucky  to  Missouri  as  early  as 
1828.  The  Enloes,  Leslies,  Simpsons,  Shorts 
and  Van  Pools  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  of 
1824-1835,  were  familiar  with  the  facts. 
Everywhere  the  gossip  was  the  same,  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of  Abraham 
Enloe — in  New  York,  Missouri,  Mississippi, 
Florida,  North  Carolina.  Kentucky — and  long 
before  a  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  dreamed 
of — before  the  war  and  during  the  war  and 
after  the  war. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  only  ante-bellum 
biographer  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  only  biographer 
who  is  accredited  with  having  got  his  data 
from  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  lips,  and  who  enjoyed 
the  honor  of  having  his  proofs  read  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  obtained  from  Mr.  Lincoln  a  secret 
about  his  ancestry  which  he  (Lincoln)  did  not 
wish  published  then,  and  which  he  (the  biog- 


209 

rrapher  Air.  John  Loake  Scripps)  died  without 
•revealing  to  any  one. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should 
disclose  the  fact  that  "his  mother  was  the 
illegitimate  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks  and  a 
well-bred  Virginia  farmer  or  planter,"  enter- 
ing upon  an  illumined  discussion  of  hereditary 
traits  as  between  legitimate  and  illegitimate 
offspring,  and  then  suddenly  draw  around  him- 
self a  barrier  of  sombre  silence,  Mr.  Herndon 
was  afraid  to  penetrate.  Was  it  the  disclos- 
ure he  had  made  as  to  his  mother's  illegiti- 
macy, or  the  next  step  in  the  process  of  dis- 
closure— his  own  illegitimacy,  at  which  he 
lapsed?  Abraham  Lincoln  always  lapsed  into 
reticence  at  this  point  in  his  discourse  where, 
to  his  mind,  to  have  continued  would  have 
impaired  his  personal,  or  the  public,  final  in- 
terest. At  the  time  at  which  he  was  talking 
with  Mr.  Herndon,  nor  at  the  time  he  divulged 
the  secret  to  Mr.  Scripps  was  it  expedient,  to 
:his  mind,  to  make  this  latter  matter  of  public 
•disclosure.  It  was  something  he  did  not  wish 
•"  published  then  "  and  relating  to  his  ancestry. 

Itjis  remarkable  that  there  could  never  be 


210 

found  official  record  of  the  marriage  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  ;  that  there  should 
have  been  no  affection  between  Thomas  Lincoln' 
and  Abraham  Lincoln  his  reputed  son  ;  that 
the  former  should  have  treated  the  latter  with 
great  and  habitual  cruelty  ;  that  there  should 
have  been  a  sister  older  than  Abraham  but  no 
vestige  of  proof  that  he  even  recognized  her 
while  she  lived,  or  referred  to  her  after  her 
death — an  only  sister.  It  is  remarkable  that 
this  sister's  name  is  subject  for  difference  be- 
tween biographers — some,  able  and  well  in- 
formed, contending  that  her  name  was  Nancy, 
and  others  equally  able  and  well  informed, 
affirming  that  her  name  was  Sarah.  It  is  re- 
markable that  there  should  have  been  any 
variance  of  information  among  Lincoln  biog- 
raphers as  to  the  given  came  of  the  father  cfc 
Thomas  Lincoln.  It  is  still  more  remarkable 
that  the  variance  is  between  one  biographer, 
a  down- caster,  Dr.  Holland,  on  the  one  side, 
and  Thomas  Lincoln's  own  family  and  life- 
time associates,  on  the  other.  Dr.  Holland 
contending  without  verification  that  Thomas- 
Lincoln's  father's  name  was  Abraham  ;  and. 


211 


on  the  other  hand,  the  Hankses — John  and 
^Dennis  (Dennis  here  being  disinterested) ,  and 
'Col.  Chapman,  who  married  Thomas  Lincoln's 
stepdaughter,  submitting  that  his  name  was 
Mordecai,  and  that  this  Mordecai,  Thomas 
Lincoln's  father,  had  four  brothers — John, 
Jacob,  Isaac  and  Thomas. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  according  to  the  tes- 
timony of  the  family  there  was  not  a  single 
member  named  Abraham  prior  to  the  advent 
of  the  President,  and  that  Dr.  Holland  should 
Jiave  discovered  the  given  name  of  the  grand- 
.sire  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  President. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Abraham  has  been  a 
common  name  among  the  Enloes  for  a  hun- 
•dred  years.  Indeed  it  is  remarkable  opposite 
this  tradition  that  the  child  was  christened 
Abraham. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  Bible  record  of 
births  and  deaths  which  purports  to  be  in  the 
handwriting  of  the  President  devotes  so  much 
space  to  the  Johnsons,  who  were  of  no  blood 
relation,  and  so  little  to  his  mother,  reputed 
sister,  reputed  father  and  the  Hankses  and 
Lincolns,  who  should  have  been  bound  to 


212 


him    by  the  most  sacred  ties  of  blood  and 
memory. 

Finally,  it  is  remarkable,  if  the  tradition 
that  Abraham  Enloe  was  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  be  a  fabrication  and  a  fraud, 
that  certain  influences  of  standing  and  power 
should  have  sought  with  so  much  diligence 
and  persistency  to  run  it  to  earth  and  break, 
or  destroy  it.  Over  against  the  subject  of 
these  pages  all  these  facts  are  very  pre-en- 
gaging and  remarkable. 


In  connection  with  this  tradition  we  deem 
the  history  of  the  Enloe  family  of  much  im- 
portance. It  has,  however,  for  obvious  rea- 
sons, been  our  first  and  foremost  object  to- 
strengthen  and  perfect  the  lines  of  the  main 
fact  of  this  book.  But,  fortunately,  in  so 
doing  we  have  come  into  possession  of  quite 
an  interesting  and  extended  account  of  cer- 
tain branches  of  the  Enloe  family  resident  in 
States  other  than  North  Carolina.  For  the 
majority  of  this  data  we  are  directly  indebted 
to  Dr.  I.  N.  Enloe  of  Jefferson  City,  Mis- 
souri. 


213 

It  is  evident  from  this  and  other  record 
that  the  family  is  of  Scotch  origin, — that  the 
originals  came  from  Scotland  is  borne  out  by 
all  the  testimony. 

It  is  also  evident  there  are  two  brothers — 
first  settlers — accounted  for  by  informed  mem- 
bers of  the  family  residing  in  different  States 
and  unacquainted  with  each  other.  These 
two  brothers  stopped  in  York  District,  South 
Carolina.  They  were  school  teachers  by  pro- 
fession. Their  names  were  Isaac  and  Enoch. 

It  is  further  evident  that  all  the  Enloes 
known  to  this  nafrative  sprang  from  these 
two  forbears,  and  that  Gilbert  Enloe  was  the 
son  of  Isaac.  Gilbert  Enloe,  therefore,  could 
not  have  been  the  father  of  Abraham  Enloe, 
the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

James  Enloe,  of  Missouri,  a  descendant  of 
Enoch,  states  it  as  his  opinion  that  Wesley 
and  the  other  Enloes,  of  North  Carolina,  were 
mistaken  as  to  Gilbert's  having  been  the  father 
of  Abraham  ;  and  Rev.  Asahel  Enloe,  the  son 
of  Gilbert,  says  that  his  father  was  the  son  of 
Isaac ;  that  he  knew  Abraham  Enloe  and  that 
his  father  called  him  "Cousin  Abram." 


214 

There  are  no  more  intelligent  people  in 
North  Carolina  than  the  Enloes — Abraham's 
descendants  ;  they  are  among  the  State's  fore- 
most citizens,  but,  like  thousands  of  others,  a 
busy  life  with  someone  of  its  manifold  unavoid- 
able circumstances,  has  prevented  their  pre- 
serving the  lines  of  descent. 

Thorough  investigation,  when  we  have 
time,  we  are  confident  will  disclose  the  fact 
that  Abraham,  the  father  of  Lincoln,  was  the 
son  of  Enoch  Enloe,  of  York  District,  South 
Carolina,  unless  there  were  three  instead  of 
two  original  brothers  who  'settled  there,  and 
Abraham  was  the  son  of  the  unknown  one. 
The  weight  of  evidence,  however,  is  in  favor 
of  the  theory  that  only  two  Scotsmen — Isaac 
and  Enoch — settled  in  York  District.  All 
the  North  Carolina  testimony  being  the  same, 
that  Abraham  Enloe  came  to  this  State  from 
York  District,  he  must  have  been  the  son  of 
one  of  these  old  school  teachers.  The  En- 
loes— sturdy  Scotsmen— are  one  family,  rep- 
resentative, self-sustaining,  self-respecting,  pa- 
triotic, intelligent,  progressive,  of  the  best 
American  citizenship,  and  worthy  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  or  any  other  man. 


215 

Through  the  gracious  agency  of  Mr.  John 
E.  Burton,  of  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  a  Lin- 
coln specialist,  and  by  the  generous  courtesy 
of  Mr.  Levin  C.  Handy,  we  have  obtained  the 
following  : 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C., 

Nov.  26,  1903. 
MR.  JOHN  E.  BURTON  : 

You  are  authorized  to  use  in  print,  in  a 
book  now  being  published  by  James  H.  Cathey, 
any  picture    of  Abraham    Lincoln    standing, 
sitting  or  otherwise,  as  shown  by  any  nega- 
tive from  which  prints  are  made  by  me. 
LEVIN  C.  HANDY, 
Nephew  and  Successor  of 

M.  B.  Brady, 
449  Maryland  Ave.,  S.  W., 

Washington,  D.  C." 

The  charming  sitting  picture  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  made  by  Mr.  Brady  for  his  private  collec- 
tion, and  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  just  to  suit  the  artist. 
His  nephew  had  never  copied  it  until  he 
did  so  for  Mr.  Burton .  Mr.  Brady  made  two 
proofs  of  this  rare  picture,  and  then  by  a  mis- 
fortune dropped  the  plate  and  broke  it  into 


2l6 


forty  pieces.     Mr.  Brady's  nephew  has  been 
offered  $100.00  for  the  other  proof. 

Mr.  Brady's  nephew  gave  a  rough  print  of 
it  for  public  exhibition  in  the  Presbyterian 
celebration  of  the  i5Oth  anniversary  of  .that 
church  recently  held  at  Washington.  The 
full  length,  standing  likeness  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  from  the  actual,  original,  glass  negative  of 
Mr.  Brady. 

Mr.  Brady  took  practically  all  the  Lincoln 
and  other  official  photographs  from  1860  to 
1895-8. 

His  nephew,  Mr.  Handy,  is  the  only  heir  to 
all,  and  sold  many  of  them  in  a  lump  to  the 
United  States  government  for  $25,000.  We, 
therefore,  congratulate  the  public,  through  the 
generosity  of  Mr.  Handy,  by  way  of  the  good- 
ness of  Mr.  Burton,  upon  its  great  fortune  in 
being  permitted  to  admire  these  unique  speci- 
mens of  the  accomplished  artist  upon  the 
homely,  handsome  face  and  form  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  we  trust  the  student  of  this  tra- 
dition will  not  neglect  the  physical  compari- 
son thereby  facilitated. 

JAMES  H.  CATHEY. 

Sylva,  N.  C. 


PART  II.— TRUTH  RECOVERED  FROM 
SUPPRESSED  HISTORIC  RECORD. 

After  three  years  of  diligent  search  the 
author  has  come  into  the  temporary  possession 
and  use  of  the  suppressed  edition  of  the  Life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  William  H.  Herndon. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  Mr.  Hern- 
don, now  deceased,  was  a  citizen  of  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  and  the  intimate,  personal 
friend  and  law-partner  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
that  the  partnership  which  extended  over 
near  a  quarter  of  a  century,  was  dissolved 
by  the  untimely  death  of  the  latter. 

The  suppressed  edition  consists  of  three 
volumes  of  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
pages,  bound  in  dark  blue  cloth,  with  the  fac- 
simile autograph  of  Mr.  Lincoln  imprinted  in 
gold  upon  the  back,  and  the  face  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, also  in  gold,  upon  the  backbone  of  the 
book.  The  edition  is  abundantly  illustrated. 
It  is  published  by  Messrs.  Belford,  Clark  &  Co. 

Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  was  a  collaborator  upon 
these  volumes  and  his  name  so  appears  in  the 


2i8 


book.  The  edition  is  now  rare  to  the  ragged 
edge  of  extinction — a  set  selling  for  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-five  dollars. 

The  edition  was  suppressed  because  of  some 
paragraphs  therein  that  were  objectionable  to 
certain  individuals.  These  paragraphs  are 
known  by  a  comparison  of  the  original  or 
suppressed  edition  and  the  new  or  current 
edition,  consisting  of  two  volumes  bound  in 
green  cloth,  embracing  six  hundred  and  seven- 
ty-nine pages,  including  a  lengthy  intro- 
duction by  Mr.  Horace  White,  and  published 
by  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

A  comparative  examination  of  the  two  edi- 
tions will  show  the  matter  appearing  in  the 
old  or  suppressed,  and  expurgated  in  the  new 
or  current  edition,  as  follows :  Volume  i, 
pages  3,  4,  5,  6  and  7  —  "His  (Lincoln's) 
theory  in  discussing  the  matter  of  hereditary 
traits  had  been,  that,  for  certain  reasons,  ille- 
gitimate children  are  oftentimes  sturdier  and 
brighter  than  those  born  in  lawful  wedlock  ; 
and  in  his  case,  lie  believed  that  his  better 
nature  and  finer  qualities  came  from  this  broad- 
minded,  unknown  Virginian.  The  relation — 


219 

painful  as  it  was — called  up  the  recollection 
of  his  mother,  and  as  the  buggy  jolted  over 
the  road  (Mr.  Herndon  and  Mr.  Lincoln  were 
on  their  way  to  court),  he  added  :  '  God  bless 
my  mother  ;  all  that  I  am  or  ever  hope  to  be  I 
owe  to  her'  ;  and  immediately  lapsed  into  si- 
lence. Our  interchange  of  ideas  ceased,  and 
we  rode  on  for  some  time  without  exchanging 
a  word.  He  was  sad  and  absorbed.  Burying 
himself  in  thought  and  musing,  no  doubt, 
over  the  disclosure  he  had  made,  he  drew 
round  him  a  barrier  which  I  feared  to  pene- 
trate. His  words  and  melancholy  tone  made 
a  deep  impression  on  me. 

It  was  an  experience  I  can  never  forget. 
As  we  neared  the  town  of  Petersburg  we  were 
overtaken  by  an  old  man,  who  rode  beside  us 
for  awhile  and  entertained  us  with  reminis- 
cences of  days  on  the  frontier.  Lincoln  was 
reminded  of  several  Indiana  stories,  and  by 
the  time  we  had  reached  the  unpretentious 
court  house  at  our  destination,  his  sadness  had. 
passed  away. 

After  Mr.  Lincoln  had  -obtained  some 
prominence  in  the  world,  persons  who  knew 


220 


both  himself  and  his  father  were  constantly 
pointing-  to  the  want  of  resemblance  between 
the  two.  The  old  gentleman  was  not  only 
deprived  of  energy  and  shiftless,  and  because 
of  these  persons  were  unable  to  account  for 
the  source  of  his  son's  ambition  and  intellect- 
ual superiority  over  other  men.  Hence  the 
charge  so  often  made  in  Kentucky  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  in  reality  the  offspring  of  a  Har- 
din  or  a  Marshall,  or  that  he  had  in  his  veins 
the  blood  of  some  of  the  noted  families  who 
held  social  and  intellectual  sway  in  the  west- 
•ern  part  of  the  State.  These  serious  hints 
were  the  outgrowth  of  the  campaign  of  1860, 
which  was  conducted  with  such  unrelenting 
prejudice  in  Kentucky  that  in  the  county 
where  Lincoln  was  born  only  six  persons 
could  be  found  who  had  the  courage  to  vote 
for  him.  I  remember  that  after  his  nomina- 
tion for  the  Presidency,  Lincoln  received  from 
Kentucky  many  enquiries  about  his  family 
and  origin.  This  curiosity  on  the  part  of  the 
people  for  one  who  had  attained  such  promi- 
nence was  perfectly  natural,  but  it  never 
pleasedjhim  in  the  least ;  in  fact  to  one  man 


221 


who  was  endeavoring  to  establish  a  relation- 
ship through  the  Hanks  family  he  simply 
answered :  '  Yon  are  mistaken  about  my 
mother,'  without  explaining  the  mistake  or 
making  further  mention  of  the  matter. 

Samuel  Haycroft,  the  clerk  of  the  court  in 
Hardin  county,  invited  him  to  visit  the  scenes 
of  his  birth  and  boyhood,  which  led  him  to 
say  in  a  letter,  June  4,  1860  :  '  You  suggest 
that  a  visit  to  the  place  of  my  nativity  might 
be  pleasant  to  me.  Indeed  it  would,  but 
would  it  be  safe?  Would  not  the  people 
lynch  me?' 

That  reports  reflecting  on  his  origin  and 
descent  should  arise  in  a  community  in  which 
he  felt  that  his  life  was  unsafe  was  by  no 
means  surprising. 

Regarding  the  paternity  of  Lincoln  a  great 
many  surmises  and  a  still  larger  amount  of 
unwritten  or,  at  least,  unpublished,  history 
have  drifted  into  the  currents  of  western  lore 
and  journalism. 

A  number  of  such  traditions  are  extant  in 
Kentucky  and  other  localities.  Mr.  Weik  has 
spent  considerable  time  investigating  the 


222 


truth  of  a  report  current  in  Bourbon  county, 
Kentucky,  that  Thomas  Lincoln,  for  a  consid- 
eration jrom  one  Abraham  Inlow,  a  miller 
there,  assumed  the  paternity  of  the  infant 
child  of  a  poor  girl  named  Nancy  Hanks  ;  and 
after  marriage  removed  with  her  to  Washing- 
ton or  Hardin  county,  where  the  son,  who  was 
named  Abraham,  after  his  real,  and  Lincoln 
after  his  putative  father,  was  born. 

A  prominent  citizen  of  the  town  of  Mount 
Sterling,  in  that  State,  who  was  at  one  time 
judge  of  the  court  and  subsequently  editor  of 
a  newspaper,  and  who  was  descended  from 
the  Abraham  Inlow  mentioned,  has  written  a 
long  argument  in  support  of  his  alleged 
kinship  through  this  source  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
He  emphasizes  the  striking  similarity  in 
stature,  facial  features,  and  length  of  arms, 
notwithstanding  the  well-established  fact  that 
the  first-born  child  of  the  real  Nancy  Hanks 
was  not  a  boy,  but  a  girl ;  and  that  the  mar- 
riage did  not  take  place  in  Bourbon,  but  in 

Washington  county." 

*         *         # 

Next  to  the  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln  by 


223 

his  law-partner  above  quoted  from,  for  open 
method  and  frank  and  fearless  statement, 
ranks  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln  by  Ward  H. 
Lamon-  This  work  consists  of  one  volume, 
in  octavo  form,  and  contains  on  extra  large 
paper  547  pages,  beside  14  pages  of  introduc- 
tory matter,  and  was  published  by  Messrs. 
James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  of  Boston. 

Mr.  Lamon  was  the  man  who  spirited  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  his  post  at  Washington  when  it 
was  thought  his  life  was  sought. 

Personal  fitness  and  circumstances  familiar 
to  the  informed  student  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
rendered  Mr.  Lamon  peculiarly  competent  to 
write  the  truthful  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  ad- 
dition to  his  own  rare  materials  he  purchased 
for  three  thousand  dollars  the  use  of  the  orig- 
inal manuscript  of  Mr.  Herndon.  He  labored 
against  the  hardship  of  having  an  unnatural 
public  taboo  his  book.  His  book  was  vigor- 
ously attacked,  but  in  the  attack  attention 
was  called  to  the  fact  that  Lincoln's  biography, 
summed  up,  published  to  the  world  that 
' '  Abraham  Lincoln  was  of  illegitimate  origin 
and  lived  and  died  an  infidel." 


224 

This  statement  aroused  inquiry  ;  people  be- 
gan to  search  for  old  copies  of  Lamon's 
Lincoln  until,  at  this  writing,  it  is  in  such 
demand  that  a  copy  sells  for  from  four  dollars 
and  fifty  cents  to  twelve  dollars  at  public  auc- 
tion. 

This  book  was  also  suppressed. 

Apropos  to  the  narrative  of  these  pages  I 
quote  from  this  suppressed  edition  of  Lamon's 
Life  of  Lincoln  as  follows  : 

u  His  father's  name  was  Thomas  Lincoln 
and  his  mother's  maiden  name  was  Nancy 
Hanks. 

At  the  time  of  his  birth  -they  are  S2ipposed 
to  have  been  married  about  three  years. 

Although  there  appears  to  have  been  little 
sympathy  or  affection  between  Thomas  and 
Abraham  Lincoln,  they  were  nevertheless  con- 
nected by  ties  and  associations  which  make  the 
previous  history  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Iris 
family  a  necessary  part  of  any  reasonably  full 
biography  of  the  great  man  who  immortalized 
the  name  by  WEARING  IT." 

Further  :  "  Dr.  Holland  says  that  the  father 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  was  named  Abraham,  but 


225 

gives  no  authority  for  his  statement,  and  is  as 
likely    to    be    wrong   as    to    be    right.     The 
Hankses,  Dennis  and  John,  who  passed  a  great 
part  of  their  lives  in  the  company  of  Thomas 
Lincoln,  tell   us  that   the  name  of  the  father 
of  Thomas    Lincoln    was    Mordecai,    and   so 
also  does  Col.  Chapman,  who  married  Thomas 
Lincoln's  step- daughter.     Dr.  Holland   says, 
also,  that  the  father  of  Thomas  Lincoln  had 
four  brothers,  John,  Jacob,  Isaac  and  Thomas." 
Further:    "Thomas    Lincoln    (Abraham's 
father)   was   comparatively    short  and   stout, 
standing  about    five  feet  ten    inches   in    his 
shoes.     His  hair  dark,  face  round  and  full, 
complexion   brown.     He   was  a  vagrant ;  in 
politics  a  Democrat ;  in  religion  nothing  and 
everything — a  Free  Will  Baptist  in  Kentucky, 
a  Presbyterian  in  Indiana  and  a  Carnpbellite 
in  Illinois.     He  was  variously  called  Lincoln, 
Linckhern  and  Linckhorn.     He  was  married 
sometime    in    1806  to  Nancy  Hanks.     It  is 
true  that  Nancy  did  not  live  with  her  uncle. 
It  is  admitted  by  all  the  old  residents  of  the 
place  that  they  were  honestly  married,   but 
precisely  when  or  where  no  one  can  tell.     Dil- 


226 


igent  and  thorough  researches  by  the  most 
competent  persons  have  failed  to  discover  any 
trace  of  the  fact  in  the  records  of  Hardin  and 
adjoining  counties.  The  license  and  the 
minister's  return  in  the  marriage  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Sarah  fohnson,  his  second  wife, 
were  easily  found  in  the  place  where  the  law 
required  them  to  be,  but  of  Nancy  Hanks' 
marriage  there  exists  no  evidence  but  that  of 
mutual  acknowledgment  and  cohabitation" 

Again  :  "  It  is  not  likely  that  Tom  Lincoln 
cared  a  straw  about  his  (Abraham's)  educa- 
tion. He  had  none  himself  and  is  said  to 
have  admired  muscle  more  than  mind.  Never- 
theless, as  Abraham's  sister  was  going  to 
school  for  a  few  days  at  a  time,  he  was  .sent 
along,  as  Dennis  Hanks  remarks,  more  to  bear 
her  company  than  with  any  expectation  or 
DESIRE  that  he  would  learn  much  himself" 

Again  :  "  Being  a  wanderer  by  nature  he 
(Thomas  Lincoln)  began  to  long  for  a  change. 
His  decision,  however,  was  hastened  by  cer- 
tain troubles  between  him  and  one  Abraham 
Enlow.  These  troubles  culminated  in  a  des- 
perate combat  between  the  two  men.  They 


22J 

fought  like  savages ;  but  Lincoln  obtained  a 
signal  and  permanent  advantage  by  biting  off 
the  nose  of  his  antagonist,  so  that  he  went 
bereft  all  the  days  of  his  life,  and  published 
his  audacity  and  its  punishment  wherever  he 
showed  his  face.  But  the  affray,  and  the  fame 
of  it,  made  Lincoln  more  anxious  than  ever 
to  escape  from  Kentucky.  He  resolved,  there- 
fore, to  leave  these  scenes  forever,  and  seek  a 
roof-tree  beyond  the  Ohio. 

It  has  pleased  some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  biog- 
raphers to  represent  this  removal  of  his  father 
as  a  flight  from  the  taint  of  slavery.  Nothing 
could  be  further  from  the  truth.  There  were 
not  at  the  time  more  than  fifty  slaves  in  all 
Hardin  county,  which  then  composed  a  vast 
area  of  territory.  It  was  practically  a  free 
community.  Lincoln's  more  fortunate  rela- 
tives in  other  parts  of  the  State  were  slave- 
holders ;  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  evi- 
dence that  he  ever  disclosed  any  conscientious 
scruples  concerning  the  institution." 

Again :  "  The  lives  of  his  father  and  mother, 
and  the  history  and  character  of  the  family 
before  their  settlement  in  Indiana,  were  topics 


228 


upon  which  .  Mr.  Lincoln  never  spoke  but  with 
great  rehictance  and  significant  reserve.  In 
his  family  Bible  he  kept  a  register  of  births, 
marriages  and  deaths,  every  entry  being  care- 
fully made  in  his  own  hand-writing.  It  con- 
tains the  date  of  his  sister's  birth  and  his  own  ; 
of  the  marriage  and  death  of  his  sister  ;  of  the 
death  of  his  mother  ;  and  of  the  birth  and 
death  of  Thomas  Lincoln  ;  the  rest  of  the  rec- 
ord is  almost  wholly  devoted  to  the  Johnstons 
and  their  numerous  descendants  and  connec- 
tions. It  has  not  a  word  about  the  Hanks  or 
the  Sparrows.  It  shows  the  marriage  of  Sally 
Bush,  first  with  Daniel  Johnston,  and  then  with 
Thomas  Lincoln  ;  but  it  is  entirely  silent  as  to 
the  marriage  of  his  own  mother.  It  does  not 
even  give  the  date  of  her  birth,  but  barely  rec- 
ognizes her  EXISTENCE  and  demise  to  make  the 
vacancy  which  was  speedily  filled  by  Sarah 
Johnston.'' 

And  again  :  "An  artist  was  painting  his 
portrait  and  asked  him  for  a  sketch  of  his  life. 
He  gave  him  this  brief  memorandum  :  '  I  was 
born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  county, 
Kentucky,  at  a  point  within  the  now  county 


229 

of  La  Rue,  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
where  Hodgen's  mill  now  is.  My  parents 
being  dead  and  my  own  memory  not  serving, 
I  know  of  no  means  of  identifying  the  precise 
locality.  It  was  on  -Nolin  Creek.' ' 

And  again  :  "  To  the  compiler  of  the  'Dic- 
tionary of  Congres  '  he  gave  the  following  : 
'Born  Feb.  9,  1809,  in  Hardin  county,  Ken- 
tucky. Education  defective.  Profession  a 
lawyer.  Have  been  a  Captain  of  Volunteers 
in  the  Black-Hawk  war.  Postmaster  at  a 
very  small  office.  Four  times  a  member  of 
the  Illinois  Legislature,  and  was  a  member  of 
the  Lower  House  of  Congress.' " 

Further:  "To  a  campaign  biographer  who 
applied  for  particulars  of  his  early  history,  he 
replied  that  they  could  be  of  no  interest.  Mr. 
Lincoln  communicated  some  facts  to  this  biog- 
rapher about  his  ancestry  which  he  did  not 
wish  published  then." 

Again  :  "  Life  among  the  Hankses  the  Lin- 
coins  and  the  Enlows  was  a  long  way  below 
life  among  the  Bushes,  and  Sarah  was  the 
proudest  of  the  Bushes." 

And  again  :  "  We  are  told  by  Col.  Chapman 


230 

that  Abe's  father,  Tom  Lincoln,  habitually 
treated  him  with  great  barbarity.  Mr.  Lincoln 
through  life  took  little  notice  of  his  father."' 
And  again  :  "In  the  gallery  of  family  por- 
traits painted  by  Dennis  "  (Hanks)  "  every  face 
looks  down  upon  us  with  the  serenity  of  inno- 
cence and  virtue.  There  is  no  spot  on  the 
fame  of  any  of  them.  No  family  could  have 
a  more  vigorous  or  chivalrous  defender  than 
he,  or  one  who  repelled  with  greater  scorn  any 
rumor  to  their  discredit.  The  Enlow  story  ! 
Dennis  almost  scorned  to  confute  it ;  but, 
when  he'did'get  at  it,  he  settled  it  by  a  mag- 
nificent exercise  of  invective  genius.  He 
knew  '  this  Abe  Enlow '  well,  he  said,  and  he 
had  been^dead'precisely  fifty-five  years.  But, 
whenever  the  truth  can  be  told  without  dam- 
age to  the  character  of  a  Lincoln  or  a  Hanks, 
Dennis  will  tell  it  candidly  enough,  provided 
there  is  ^no  temptation  to  magnify  himself. 
His  testimony,  however,  has  been  sparingly 
used  throughout  these  pages ;  and  no  state- 
ment has-been  taken  from  him,  unless  it  was 
more  or  lless  corroborated  by  some  one  else. 
The  better  part  of  his  evidence  Mr.  Herndon 


incoln  in  Standing  Posture,  with  Allen  Pinkerton  on  his  right 
and  Gen.  LaFayette  C.  Baker  on  his  left,  heads  of  Detective 
Departments. 


WESLEY  ENLOE 
AT  THE  AGE  OF  8r.    SON  OF  ABRAHAM  ENI.OE. 

The  most  striking  similarity  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
Wesley  Enloe  is  their  physical  formation  and  charac- 
teristics, which  may  be  seen  from  the  above  compara- 
tive standing  likeness. 


231 

took  the  precaution  of  reading  carefully  to 
John  Hanks,  who  pronounced  it  substantially 
true;  and  that  circumstance  gives  it  undeni- 
able value." 


I  quote  from  "  Horton's  Youth's  History  of 
the  Great  Civil  War."  Mr.  Horton  was  a  cit- 
izen of  New  York.  In  his  biographical  sketch 
of  Abraham  Lincon,  among  other  things,  he 
says  : 

"  He  had  the  misfortune  not  to  know  who 
his  father  was;  and  his  mother,  alas,  was  a 
person  to  reflect  no  honor  upon  her  child. 
Launched  into  the  world  an  outcast,  and 
started  on  the  road  of  being  without  parental 
care,  and  without  the  advantage  of  even  a 
common-school  education,  he  certainly  was 
entitled  to  great  credit  for  gaining  even  the 
limited  mental  culture  which  he  possessed. 
He  ran  away  from  his  wretched  home  at  the 
age  of  nine,  to  escape  the  brutal  treatment  of 
the  man  who  had  married  his  mother  and  was 
forced  to  get  his  bread  by  working  on  a  flat- 
boat  on  the  Mississippi." 

In  the  preface  to  the  first  volume  of  his  biog- 


232 

raphy  Mr.  iHerndon  says  :  "With  a  view  to 
throwing  a  light  upon  some  attributes  of  Lin- 
coln's character  heretofore  obscure,  and  thus 
contributing  to  the  great  fund  of  history  these 
volumes  are  given  to  the  world. 

It  is  alike  just  to  his  memory  and  the  proper 
legacy  of  mankind  that  the  whole  truth  con- 
cerning him  should  be  known. 

If  the  story  of  his  life  is  truthfully  and 
courageously  told — nothing  colored  or  sup- 
pressed ;  nothing  false  either  written  or  sug- 
gested— the  reader  will  see  and  feel  the  real 
presence  of  the  man. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  story  is  colored  or 
the  facts  in  any  degree  suppressed,  the  reader 
will  be  not  only  misled,  but  imposed  upon  as 
well. 

At  last  the  truth  will  come  and  no  man  need 
hope  to  evade  it. 

Lincoln's  character,  I  am  certain  will  bear 
close  scrutiny.  I  am  not  afraid  of  you  in  this 
direction.  Don't  let  anything  deter  you  fiom 
digging  to  the  bottom.  In  drawing  the  por- 
trait tell  the  world  what  the  skeleton  was  with 
Lincoln.  What  gave  him  that  peculiar  mel- 


233 

ancholy.  What  cancer  had  he  inside.  Espe- 
cial attention  is  given  to  the  history  of  his 
youth  and  early  manhood ;  and  while  dwelling 
on  this  portion  of  his  life  the  liberty  is  taken 
to  insert  many  things  that  would  be  otnited  or 
suppressed  in  other  places  where  the  cast-iron 
rules  that  govern  magazine  writing  prevail. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  my  warm,  devoted  friend.  I 
always  loved  him,  and  revere  his  name  to  this 
day.  My  purpose  to  tell  the  truth  about  him 
need  occasion  no  apprehension  ;  for  I  know 
that  God's  naked  truth,  as  Carlyle  puts  it,  can 
never  injure  the  fame  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Some  persons  will  doubtless  object  to  the 
narrative  of  certain  facts  which  appear  here 
for  the  first  time,  and  which  they  contend 
should  be  consigned  to  the  tomb.  Their  pre- 
tense is  that  no  good  can  come  from  such 
ghastly  exposures.  To  such  over-sensitive 
souls,  if  any  such  exist,  my  answer  is  that 
these  facts  are  indispensable  to  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  all  the  walks  of  life." 

The  forgoing  is  Mr.  Herndon's  apology  for 
writing  his  faithful  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
He  savshe  loved  Mr.  Lincoln  and  revered  his 


234 

name.  Moreover  he  says  he  was  the  personal 
depository  of  the  larger  part  of  the  most  val- 
uable Lincolniana  in  existence. 

Hear  what  no  less  authority  than  Mr.  Horace 
White  says  of  Mr.  Herndon's  peculiar  qualifi- 
cations for  the  task  of  writing  a  true  charac- 
terization of  Abraham  Lincoln  :  a  What  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  after  he  became  President  can  be 
best  understood  by  knowing  what  he  was  be- 
fore. The  world  owes  more  to  William  H. 
Herndon  for  this  particular  knowledge  than 
to  all  other  persons  taken  together.  It  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  his  death  removed 
from  earth  the  person  who,  of  all  others,  had 
most  thoroughly  searched  the  sources  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  biography  and  had  most  attentively, 
and  also  lovingly,  studied  his  character.  He 
was  nine  years  the  junior  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Their 
partnership  began  in  1843  and  it  continued 
until  it  was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  the  senior 
member.  Between  them  there  was  never  an 
unkind  word  or  thought. 

As  a  portraiture  of  the  man  Lincoln — and 
this  is  what  we  look  for  above  all  things  else  in 
a  biography — I  venture  to  think  that  Mr. 
Herndon's  work  will  never  be  surpassed." 


235 


PART  III.— FURTHER  FOLK-LORE. 

I  quote  from  a  letter  received  from  Rev. 
S.  E.  Kennedy,  of  Davis,  Indian  Territory, 
of  date  July  7,  1898. 

The  Davis  Weekly  News,  of  his  home  town, 
says  of  him  :  "  Rev.  S.  E.  Kennedy  is  pastor 
of  the  Christian  Church  here,  and  is  loved 
and  esteemed  universally  by  all  who  have  the 
pleasure  of  knowing  him.  He  wrote  : 
•  "  'My  grandfather  and  grandmother,  John 
and  Fannie  Kennedy,  lived  neighbor  to  Abra- 
ham Enloe  in  North  Carolina,  and  were  well 
acquainted  with  both  Abraham  Enloe  and 
Nancy  Hanks.  My  grandmother  was  born 
about  1775.  Her  story  of  the  Enloe-Hanks 
imbroglio  was  substantially  as  follows  :  '  The 
father  of  Nancy  Hanks  was  a  drunkard  and 
was  so  cruel  to  his  wife  and  children  that  he 
was  imprisoned  and  made  to  make  shoes  as  a 
punishment.  The  mother  of  Nancy  Hanks 
was  forced  because  of  her  inability  to  support 
them  to  bind  her  children  out.  Abraham 
Enloe  took  Nancy,  and  a  man  by  the  name 


236 

of  Pratt  took  Mandy.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pratt 
were  kind  to  Mandy  and  taught  her  to  card 
and  spin  and  weave.  Mandy  did  well  and 
married  Samuel  Henson  and  moved  across 
the  mountains.  Abraham  Enloe  became  en- 
tangled with  Nancy  and  caused  her  to  be 
taken  to  Kentucky  and  to  be  married  to  Tom 
Lincoln,  who  kept  a  stillhouse  there.  Abra- 
ham Enloe  promised  to  give  Tom  Lincoln 
five  hundred  dollars,  a  wagon  and  pair  of 
mules  if  he  would  marry  Nancy  Hanks,  but 
after  Lincoln  had  got  drunk  and  attempted  to 
kill  Abraham  Enloe,  they  compromised,  and 
Enloe  gave  Lincoln  a  mule,  a  mare  and  fifteen 
dollars  in  money,  whereupon  Lincoln  took 
Nancy  and  little  Abe  back  to  Kentucky,  and 
I  never  saw  them  more.'  " 

Mr.  Kennedy  says  :  "  My  grandmother  lived 
to  be  near  ninety,  dying  about  the  year  1866. 
She  could  neither  read  nor  write,  but  pos- 
sessed the  most  perfect  memory  I  have  ever 
observed.  She  knew  Abraham  Enloe  before 
and  after  they  moved  across  the  mountains. 
Whether  my  grandparents  came  with  Enloe 
when  he  migrated  to  North  Carolina,  I  do  not 


237 

know.  What  was  meant  by  '  across  the  moun- 
tains '  I  have  forgotten,  if  I  ever  knew. 

"My  father  and  mother  moved  to  We- 
tumpka,  Alabama,  in  the  early  4o's.  I  was 
born  at  Wetumpka.  Not  long  after  the  re- 
moval of  my  parents  to  Wetumpka  one  of 
the  Enloes  also  moved  from  the  old  North 
Carolina  home,  and  settled  two  miles  east  of 
Wetumpka.  He  raised  a  large  family.  He 
is  dead,  but  the  family  still  reside  there." 


I  quote  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  James  D.  Enloe 
of  date  May  17,  1899.  Mr.  Enloe's  address 
is  Cedartown,  Georgia.  He  wrote  :  u  During 
the  war,  while  I  was  around  Petersburg,  Va., 
I  was  reading  the  Richmond  Dispatch  and 
ran  across  a  communication  by  John  L.  Hel- 
lem.  Hellem  was  my  father's  sister's  son. 
The  article  stated  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
the  illegitimate  son  of  Abraham  Enloe,  an 
uncle  of  mine.  If  he  wrote  the  truth  you 
must  be  mistaken.  But  you  may  be  right. 
My  grandfather  was  named  Abraham  Enloe 
and  came  from  either  North  Carolina  or 
South  Carolina  and  settled  on  Nolen  Creek, 


Hardin  County,  Kentucky.  Nancy  Hanks 
married  Lincoln  in  that  county.  I  was  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  Lincoln.  I  am  now 
in  my  seventy-sixth  year." 


I  quote  from  a  letter  from  Doctor  Thomas 
H.  Hammond  of  date  July  19,  1899.  Dr. 
Hammond  then  resided  in  Wildwood,  Florida. 
He  wrote  :  "  When  I  was  in  Camp  Wickliff, 
Ky.,  in  January,  1862,  I  heard  Lieut-Col. 
Wilder,  of  the  lyth  Indiana  Regiment,  say 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  illegitimate. 
Col.  Wilder  was  a  very  important  man  with 
Gen.  William  Nelson ;  going  over  the  coun- 
try giving  Gen.  Nelson  information  about  the 
roads,  bridges,  etc.,  and  he  was  over  the  coun- 
try where  Lincoln  had  lived.  In  December, 
1878,  I  went  to  Kansas  and  remained  in  that 
State  for  six  years.  While  there  a  Baptist 
preacher,  who  hailed  from  Kentucky,  asked 
me  if  I  knew  that  Lincoln  was  an  illegiti- 
mate. I  told  him  I  had  heard  it.  In  1884  I 
came  to  Florida.  Professor  Borden  was  in 
the  Confederate  Army,  and  in  that  country 
-(in  Kentucky  where  Lincoln  was  born)  during 


239 


the  war.  He  had  heard  that  Lincoln  was  an 
illegitimate,  and  related  facts  that  aroused  my 
interest  and  curiosity.  The  Baptist  preacher 
above  mentioned,  meantime,  had  come  to 
Florida,  but  had  gone  to  Taylorsville,  Ken- 
tucky. I  wrote  to  him  asking  him  who  the 
reputed  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was.  He 
did  not  know  himself,  coming  from  a  differ- 
ent part  of  the  State,  but  his  wife  and  mother 
did  ;  his  father  was  Abraham  Inlow." 


I  quote  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Nat  R.  Ander- 
son, of  Rolling  Fork,  Mississippi,  of  date  May 
28,  1899.  He  wrote  :  "  I  am  a  native  of  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  in  Virginia,  Rocking- 
ham  county.  That  State  is  where  the  Lincolns 
sprang  from.  Tom  Lincoln's  father  migrated 
from  there  to  Kentucky.  Many  of  them  are 
still  there.  They  pronounced  the  name  there 
Link-horn.  I  never  could  understand  how  so 
great  and  good  a  man  as  u  Old  Abe  "  could 
have  descended  from  such  a  low  breed  and 
entirely  worthless  a  vagabond  as  Tom  Lin- 
coln. I  have  read  most  of  the  lives  of  Lincoln. 
The  best  were  by  Ward  H.  Lamon  and  W.  H. 


240 


Herndon,  his  law-partner,  but  these  were  sup- 
pressed. 

I  am  now  an  old  man  past  three  score  and 
ten.  I  remember  most  of  the  stirring  events 
since  Jackson's  second  term ;  all  the  leading 
men  and  measures,  and  notwithstanding  our 
difference  in  party  affiliation,  I  frankly  con- 
fess that  no  man  has  interested  me  mere, 
from  his  strange,  eventful  and  lowly'  life,  than 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

You  are  undoubtedly  due  the  thanks  of 
every  lover  of  truth  and  respectability  in  the 
land  in  finding  for  the  immortal  Railsplitter 
an  honorable  paternity  and  strong  and  well- 
defined  ancestry." 


The  following  is  extracted  from  a  letter  re- 
ceived from  G.  J.  Davie,  of  Nevada,  Texas, 
bearing  date  May  5,  1899  :  "  I  was  raised  on 
the  border  of  Christian  county,  Kentucky,  on 
the  Tennessee  side.  I  knew  many  of  the  En- 
loes  and  have  all  my  life  known  that  Lincoln 
was  the  son  of  old  Abe'Enloe. 

I  was  educated  at  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  class  of  '52.'' 


241 

Following  is  the  full  text  of  a  letter  of  Judge 
James  Shaw  upon  his  perusal  of  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition  of  this  Genesis  : 

MOUNT  CARROLL,  ILL.,  March  19,  1900. 
'"Afy  Dear  Mr,  Cathey: 

"  Your  little  book  was  duly  received.  I 
have  read  and  re-read  it  with  deep  interest. 
I  always  knew  there  was  a  mystery  about  the 
early  life  of  Lincoln,  but  did  not  know  very 
well  what  it  was.  Your  book  gives  me  to  un- 
derstand many  things  I  have  seen  and  heard 
about  this  wonderful  man. 

The  address  I  have  been  giving  a  few 
times  in  this  part  of  Illinois  is  only  partly  in 
type.  It  is  mostly  an  oral  address.  When  I 
was  a  boy  and  later  a  young  man  Lincoln 
practiced  law  in  the  courts  of  Cass  county 
where  my  father  lived.  I  attended  them  a 
good  deal.  Heard  him  try  the  Armstrong 
murder  case  at  Beardstown,  and  was  present 
when  the  jury  brought  in  their  verdict  of 
acquittal,  and  witnessed  the  memorable 
scene  which  then  took  place.  He  was  often 
at  my  father's  house  in  those  days.  Later 


242 


when  I  spent  five  years  at  Illinois  College, 
Jacksonville,  111.,  he  came  often  to  the  courts 
there,  and  I  made  a  habit  of  attending  the 
trials  in  that  county  ;  I  also  used  to  be  about 
his  office  in  Springfield  a  good  deal  when  he 
was  in  full  practice  there.  The  man  had  a 
wonderful  fascination  for  me,  and  took  some 
pains  to  advise  me  in  preparing  myself  to  be- 
come a  lawyer.  His  strange,  weird,  sad  face  ; 
his  wonderful  personality,  made  a  lasting  im- 
pression on  me.  In  my  address  I  have  simply 
talked  about  him  from  my  personal  recollec- 
tions and  from  close  observation  of  the  man 
during  his  rise  to  greatness.  I  am  full  of  the 
subject  and  have  interested  our  people  up  here 
a  good  deal  with  these  personal  recollections, 
and  descriptions  of  the  man  and  his  mental 
and  physical  characteristics. 

I  would  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you  at  any 
time  as  to  anything  in  the  line  you  are  work- 
ing up  so  interestingly. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JAMES  SHAW." 


243 

Rev.  Asahel  Enloe  was  for  a  short  while  a 
resident  of  Murphy,  N.  C.  Since  the  date  of 
his  letter  both  he  and  his  son  with  whom  he 
lived  have  moved  from  the  State,  and  it  is  the 
writer's  information  that  the  old  gentleman  is 
dead.  His  son's  whereabouts  cannot  be  now 
located.  The  writer  enjoyed  a  very  brief  ac- 
quaintance with  Rev.  Mr.  Enloe  while  he 
resided  in  Murphy.  He  was  not  tall  of  stat- 
ure, bu-t  possessed  of  the  proverbially  large 
Enloe  nose  and  ears.  In  facial  form  particu- 
larly from  a  profile  view,  was  the  almost  exact 
counterpart  of  the  similar  view  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. His  features  were  homely  but  strangely 
pleasant  and  prepossessing.  He  was  a  gentle- 
man— educated,  refined,  but  familiar  as  one's 
grandmother.  There  was  a  twinkle  of  humor 
about  the  eye  (then  blind),  and  a  bubble  of 
homely  mirth  burst  ever  and  anon  in  the 
stream  of  his  conversation.  I  have  often 
deeply  deplored  my  inability  to  have  known 
more  of  him  personally. 

I  am  resolved  to  procure  for  a  subsequent 
edition  of  this  genesis  a  portrait  of  him  for 
further  illustration  of  the  theory  of  this  vol- 


244 

time,  if  there  be  one  in  existence  and  to  be  had. 
Following  is  the  answers  to  questions  in  an, 
interview  which  I  had  with  him  : 

My  age  is  81.  My  father  was  named  Gil- 
bert. My  grandfather  was  named  Isaac.  My 
father  had  two  brothers,  Asahel  and  Nathaniel. 
Father  and  uncle  Nathaniel  lived  and  died  in 
York  District,  South  Carolina.  They  were 
school  teachers.  Uncle  Asahel  moved  to 
Southern  Illinois.  My  profession  is  Presby- 
terian minister — preaching  since  1851.  I 
never  held  any  political  office.  I  graduated 
at  Davidson  College,  N.  C.,  in  1847,  also  at- 
tended Theological  Seminary  at  Columbia,. 
South  Carolina.  Most  prominent  character- 
istics physically  of  the  Enloes  are  big  ears 
and  long  noses.  My  father  and  Uncle  Asahel 
were  teachers. 

My  grandfather  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revo, 
lutionary  war  ;  was  wounded  at  Hook's  defeat, 
rendering  him  unfit  for  further  service  during 
war  in  army.  My  father  was  justice  of  the 
peace  for  many  years.  My  oldest  brother, 
Isaac,  was  a  lawyer  and  practiced  his  profess- 
ion in  Mississippi  ;  he  was  delegate  to  two 


245 

Democratic  conventions.  My  brother  John 
held  office  of  circuit  court  clerk  in  York  Dis- 
trict, S.  C.,  for  several  terms. 

I  first  knew  Abraham  Enloe  (alleged  father 
of  Lincoln)  about  1827.  I  knew  him  well,  also 
three  of  his  sons — Aseph,  Alfred  and  Scroup* 
His  sons  were  all  tall,  slender  and  muscular. 

Alfred  learned  the  blacksmith  trade  at  my 
father's  and  was  a  pleasant  man — full  of  good 
humor.  Can't  tell  our  relation.  My  father 
called  him  "cousin  Abram."  He  was  a 
trader  in  horses,  etc.,  and  in  his  yearly  visits 
South  always  visited  my  father.  It  was  re- 
lated of  him  by  a  Mr.  Kennedy,  a  kinsman  > 
that  if  he  had  every  dollar  but  one  and  knew 
that  by  riding  across  the  continent  he  could 
get  that  one,  he  would  make  the  trip.  He 
loved  to  practice  jokes  and  to  laugh  at  their 
results.  He  was  about  six  feet  in  height. 
Never  heard  of  the  tradition  until  after  Lin- 
coln was  nominated  for  the  Presidency  when 
I  heard  the  rumor  that  Lincoln's  father  was 
named  Enloe — I  was  then  in  Mississippi. 

ASAHEL   ENLOE. 

Murphy,  N.  C.,  May  15,   1899. 


246 

Following  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  best  if 
not  the  best  pen  portrait  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
in  existence. 

It  is  by  Professor  Frank  M.  Vancil  who 
was,  at  the  writing  of  this  letter  (this  to  the 
writer),  Superintendent  of  the  State,  Univer- 
sity Preparatory  High  School  at  Lewistown, 
Montana. 

Prof.  Vancil  was  born  and  reared  to  man- 
hood in  the  same,  neighborhood  with  Mr. 
Lincoln  in  Illinois,  was  intimately  acquainted 
with  him.  This  physical  description  Prof. 
Vancil  was  so  generous  as  to  transcribe  from 
the  manuscript  of  his  school  history  of  the 
United  States  which  he  was  then  engaged  in 
writing : 

"  He  was  six  feet  and  four  inches  in  height, 
the  length  of  his  legs  being  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  his  body.  When  he  sat  on  a  chair  he 
seemed  no  taller  than  the  average  man,  meas- 
uring from  the  chair  to  the  crown  of  his  head 
but  his  knees  were  high  in  front.  He  weighed 
about  1 80  pounds,  but  was  thin  through  the 
breast  and  had  the  general  appearance  of  a 
consumptive.  Standing  he  stooped  slightly 


247 

forward,  and  sitting  he  usually  crossed  his 
long  legs  or  threw  them  over  the  arms  of  the 
chair.  His  head  was  long  and  tall  from  the 
base  of  the  brain  and  the  eyebrow  ;  his  fore- 
head high  and  narrow,  inclining  backward  as 
it  rose.  His  ears  were  very  large  and  stood 
out;  eyebrows  heavy,  jutting  forward  over 
small,  sunken,  blue  eyes ;  nose  large,  long, 
slightly  Roman  and  blunt ;  chin  projecting 
far  and  sharp,  curved  upward  to  meet  a  thick 
lower  lip  which  hung  downward ;  cheeks 
flabby  and  sunken,  the  loose  skin  falling  in 
folds,  a  mole  on  one  cheek,  and  an  uncom- 
monly large  Adam's  apple  in  his  throat.  His 
hair  was  dark  brown,  stiff  and  unkempt; 
complexion  dark,  skin  yellow,  shriveled  and 
leathery.  Every  feature  of  the  man — the 
hollow  eyes  with  the  dark  rings  beneath  ;  the 
long,  sallow,  cadaverous  face,  his  whole  air 
and  walk  showed  that  he  was  a  man  of 
sorrow." 

Extract  from  letter  of  Prof.  Frank  M.Van- 
cil,  of  Lewistown,  Mont.,  of  date  July  16, 
1899. 


248 


PART  IV.— THE  BURTON  ORATION. 
AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION  TO  MR.  BURTON'S 

ORATION. 

The  fame  of  ' '  The  True  Genesis  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  "  having  gone  to  that  beautiful 
Northwestern  villa-on-the-lakes — Lake  Gen- 
eva, Wisconsin,  it  came  under  the  eye  of  Mr. 
John  E.  Burton,  a  successful  financier  and 
man  of  letters,  residing  there.  The  subject- 
matter  of  the  little  volume  at  once  engaged 
his  serious  attention.  It  had  once  again  fallen 
under  the  eye  of  a  peculiarly  qualified  critic. 
It  had  invited  the  frank  and  fearless  scrutiny 
of,  peradventure,  the^  best  informed  student 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  living.  Mr.  Burton^ 
as  he  says  in  his  oration,  had  seen  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  heard  his  voice.  He  is  and  has 
always  been  a  steadfast  believer  in  all  of  the 
principles  and  doctrines  of  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  the  exponent.  He  has  always  been  that 
which  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  the  years  which  led 
up  to  the  war  and  even  until  the  end  of  that 
dread  crisis  was  in  sight,  from  policy  was  not> 


JOHN  E.  BURTON. 


249 

an  ultra-abolitionist.  There  has  not  grown 
up  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  that  is  a  more 
loyal  Union  man.  There  is  no  more  devoted 
friend  of  the  broken  hero  of  the  armies  of  the 
North  than  he,  and  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  whose  reunions  he  has  more  than 
once  enjoyed  the  honor  of  addressing,  has  in 
him  a  substantial  support.  But,  Mr.  Burton, 
in  all  that  is  included  in  the  terms  man  and 
citizen,  finds  his  ideal  in  Abraham  Lincoln. 
In  this  conception  he  is  cheerfully  joined  by 
the  majority  of  his  contemporaries  in  the 
North,  by  many  of  every  section  of  the  Repub- 
lic, and  by  not  a  few  in  every  land  under  the 
sun.  And  he  is  not  a  blind  hero-worshiper. 
As  above  mentioned,  he  is  familiar  with  his 
hero.  There  may  be  other  men  as  well  in- 
formed upon  particular  epochs  or  phases  of 
Abraham  Lincoln's  life,  but  we  fearlessly  assert 
that  there  is  not  a  man  living  who  is  as  full  of 
all  that  pertains  to  him — as  versatile  in  the 
wide  domain  of  Lincolniana,  as  is  he.  He  is 
the  possessor  of  the  rarest,  if  not  the  largest, 
private  collection  of  works  of  biography  alone 
upon  Lincoln  in  existence,  the  nnmber  of  vol- 


250 

limes  now  being  quite  in  advance  of  one 
thousand.  His  portraits,  paintings,  photo- 
graphs ;  his  autographs,  mementoes  and 
unique  and  costly  souvenirs,  are  by  the  score 
and  hundred.  This  rare  collection,  it  is  need- 
less to  say,  represents  much  means  and  pains, 
and  his  unmatched  store  of  knowledge  is  the 
result  of  many  years  of  penetrative  study 
aided  by  the  finest  lights,  and  all  combined  are 
the  product  of  the  labor  of  love. 

After  reading  the  first  edition  of  these  pages, 
Mr.  Burton,  being  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
the  theory  therein  promulgated,  opened  a  cor- 
respondence with  the  writer  that  is  now 
ripened  into  personal  friendship.  He  ordered 
one  hundred  and  fifty  copies  for  circulation 
among  his  friends  of  the  Northwest  and  gave 
the  book  his  unstinted  endorsement.  He 
dived  into  his  deep-sea  Lincoln  treasure  and 
brought  up  the  suppressed  three-volume  Life 
of  the  President  by  his  old-time  friend  and 
law  partner.  He  rummaged  the  musty  tomes 
of  a  more  recent  alcove  and  hauled  forth  the 
one- volume  Life,  by  Ward  Hill  Lamon,  smoth- 
ered in  infancy  by  aristocratic  interdict.  These 


251 

he  at  once  expressed  to  the  writer  that  the 
truths  that  have  been  temporarily  consigned 
to  a  quasi-oblivion  might  be  vouchsafed  pop- 
ular access  in  the  light  of  day.  For  the  above 
and  other  valuable  Lincolniana,  as  well  as  for 
much  highly  esteemed  information  by  corres- 
pondence, we  acknowledge  unrequited  but 
grateful  indebtedness  to  Mr.  Burton,  but 
especially  are  we  his  debtor  for  the  oration 
which  follows. 

It  has  been  our  inestimable  fortune  to  read 
most  of  the  great  eulogies,  characterizations  and 
pen  portraits  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  stand- 
ard are  those  by  Emerson,  Ingersoll  and  Wat- 
terson.  These  three  are  esteemed  classics  in 
the  range  of  eulogistic  Lincolniana.  I/ike  all 
the  work  of  these  three  gentlemen,  they  are 
finished — every  stone  is  hewn  without  a  jar 
and  laid  in  its  exact  place  without  a  flaw,  but 
their  structures  are  rather  fantastic  than  sub- 
stantial in  effect. 

The  oration  of  Mr.  Burton  is  not  so  much 
the  production  of  a  skilled  craftsman  who  had 
had  his  task  assigned  by  assumed  public  con- 
sensus, as  it  is  the  product  of  the  self-appointed 


252 

duty  of  the  thoroughly  equipped  laboier  in 
the  vineyard  of  usefulness.  Neither  Emerson, 
Ingersoll  nor  Watterson  has  evinced  the  close 
familiarity  with  the  minutest  detail  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  entire  career  that  Mr.  Burton 
evinces  in  this  oration,  nor  have  either  treated 
that  career  in  a  manner  nearly  so  heart-thrilling 
and  practical.  It  is  true  the  utterance  from 
beginning  to  end  shows  the  author  to  be  of 
the  ultra  class  of  Lincoln  admirers,  but  this 
tendency  does  not  neutralize  the  salutary  effect 
of  the  general  estimate.  The  oration  as  a 
whole  is  unexampled  as  a  fidelic  echo  of  the 
popular  estimate  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  is 
particularly  the  truest  voicing  of  the  public 
mind  and  heart  of  the  North  toward  Abraham 
Lincoln  that  has  yet  been  articulated.  It  pos- 
sesses in  an  eminent  degree  the  element  that 
will  insure  popularity — the  element  of  sim- 
plicity— plain,  primal  ideas  clothed  in  terse 
and  telling  Saxon.  This  was  the  means  em- 
ployed by  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  in  reaching  the 
popular  heart.  It  is  sweeping  yet  detailed  ; 
prophetic  yet  practical ;  imaginative  yet  true. 
It  is  terse,  ornate,  eloquent;  critical,  reminis- 


253 

cent  and  profound.  His  entire  portrayal  is  one 
of  exceptional  vividness  and  power— the  out- 
lines are  strong,  well  sustained  and  faithful, 
and  then  each  minor  feature  is  brought  out 
•with  the  touch  of  a  master — a  man  conver- 
sant with  his  theme.  Suddenly  and  without 
•warning  you  laugh,  or  cry,  or  muse  as  you 
traverse  the  way  made  immortal  by  his  foot- 
steps. It  will  live  as  long  as  men  speak  the 
language  of  liberty  and  union,  of  gratitude  and 
love : — 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

AN    ORATION,    BY  JOHN    E.    BURTON,    OF    LAKE 
GENEVA,  WIS. 

The  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  stands 
so  high  above  all  possible  wrong-doing  that 
honesty  was  never  mentioned  or  thought  of 
as  a  virtue  in  him. 

He  was  not  only  the  best  product  of  pure 
American  civilization  which  his  century  pro- 
duced, but  he  was,  all  in  all,  the  best  public 
man  and  sincerest  statesman  who  has  ever 
figured  in  the  destiny  of  this  nation  or  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 


-    s  254 

To  all  right-minded  Americans  he  is  the 
ripe  and  rounded  product  of  what  every  man 
would  like  to  be,  and  he  will  therefore  remain, 
through  all  time,  the  symbol  of  perfected 
character.  The  whole  world  loves  Lincoln 
because  he  did  what  the  wrorld  knows  was 
right,  and  he  "avoided  doing  what  the  world 
knows  to  be  wrong,  and  it  is  therefore  doubt- 
ful if  any  human  being  will  ever  again  hold 
a  similar  position  of  greatness  in  a  similar  and 
transcendent  epoch,  or  ever  fulfill  the  world's 
expectations  so  completely,  as  did  Lincoln. 

His  fame  grows  so  steadily,  so  perfectly,  so 
naturally,  and  so  mightily,  and  the  very  fiber 
of  his  character  comes  out  so  brilliantly  as 
the  search-light  of  time  reveals  him  from  every 
possible  point  of  view  that  the  fear  among 
thoughtful  men  is,  that,  with  the  lapse  of 
centuries,  his  fame  may  pass  the  boundary 
line  allotted  to  flesh  and  blood  and  become 
obscured  by  entering  the  realm  of  the  mythi- 
cal, where  he  may  be  lost  to  the  world  of 
struggling  men  among  the  gods  and  the  myths 
which  always  inhabit  the  past. 

He  was  the  child  of  Love  before  he  was  the 


255 

child  of  Law.  Born,  not  only  in  poverty,  but 
surrounded  by  want  and  suffering  ;  favored  in 
nothing;  wanting  in  everything  which  makes 
up  the  joys  of  life,  he  trudged,  as  a  child,  the 
trail  of  sorrow,  and  was  the  playmate  of 
Grief,  and  always  above  and  around  his  mys- 
terious young  life  there  hung  the  shadow  of  a 
dark  and  mystic  cloud. 

It  was  a  literal  truth  that  "he  had  not 
where  to  lay  Ijis  head,"  and  while  he  did  not 
eat  the  "locust  and  wild  honey,"  and  while 
his  raiment  was  not  of  "  camel's  hair,"  yet 
his  clothing  was,  almost  exclusively,  "the 
skin  of  wild  beasts,"  from  his  buckskin  pants 
to  the  ponderous  coon  skin  cap.  A  meaner 
or  darker  origin  cannot  well  be  imagined. 
Not  one  ray  of  genuine  hope  can  be  discov- 
ered to  light  his  childhood.  Nature  seems  to 
have  bruised  and  hurt  him  so  that  in  man- 
hood he  might  gird  himself  to  bind  up  the 
wounds  of  a  bleeding  nation.  She  seems  to 
have  handicapped  and  loaded  his  patient  soul 
that  he  might  justly  hate  the  oppressors  of 
men  in  his  loftiest  estate.  She  seems  to  have 
starved  him  that  he  might  the  better  feel  the 


256 

hunger  and  the  yearnings  of  a  downtrodden 
race.  His  eyes  were  allowed  to  look  at  the 
sunlight  through  the  greased  paper  windows 
of  the  primitive  hut  and  log  school  house, 
that  he  might,  in  his  conquering  prime,  ap- 
preciate the  glory  of  the  noonday  sun  of  uni- 
versal freedom.  Nature  was  his  Mother,  his 
Teacher,  his  playmate,  his  All,  and  with  a 
yearning  that  was  never  satiate  he  grew  in 
stature  among  the  grand  old  trees  of  the  for- 
est ever  surrounded  by  bird  song,  flower  and 
fern,  and  with  unsandled  feet  he  walked  the 
rough  trail  of  the  pioneer  boy  straight  through 
over  rock  and  glen  to  the  mountain  top  of  per- 
fect Sincerity,  and  as  a  man  stood  as  natural 
as  a  child,  yet  possessed  all  the  powers  and 
knowledge  of  his  sex  and  his  race  in  their 
fullness  and  purity.  Almost  without  play- 
mates, he  was  the  companion  of  unadorned 
Nature,  and  with  the  intuition  of  the  child  of 
Nature,  his  heart  expanded  to  the  influence 
of  the  flight  of  fowl,  the  basking  fish,  the 
habits  of  the  timid  deer,  the  ways  of  the 
wild  turkey,  and  bounded  with  joy  in  the 
season  of  bloom  of  the  wild  crab  and  the 


257 

sumach,  and  resting  lazily  in  the  autumn 
and  Indian  summer  among  the  ripening  nuts 
and  the  purpling  grape,  he  studied  with  joy 
strange  and  profound  the  wondrous  move- 
ments of  planet,  moon  and  star.  With  a 
growth  exceeding  six  feet  and  four  inches 
he  found  himself  almost  like  one  awakening 
from  a  dream,  a  giant  in  stature  with  mus- 
cles of  iron  made  memorable  by  felling  the 
tree  and  splitting  the  rail  for  sturdy  use. 

Thus  he  matured,  like  a  prophet  of  old, 
and  kept  ever  close  to  the  great  heart  of  na- 
ture. As  a  matured  man  he  could  not  sleep 
when  the  storm  had  blown  the  nest  and  the 
nestlings  from  the  tree  until  he  had  restored 
them  to  the  mother  bird,  and  could  not  rest 
in  the  prime  of  his  matchless  manhood  until 
a  race  of  four  millions  of  fathers,  mothers 
and  children  were  restored  to  their  natural 
rights  after  the  thunder  storm  of  war  had 
passed,  and  if  we  do  not  anchor  his  mortal 
memory  to  the  ocean  bed  of  solid  fact  and 
history,  I  fear  the  day  will  yet  come  when 
some  wild  burst  in  the  ruffled  flow  of  human 
turmoil.will.claim  him  as  aChrist.  Scarcely  an 


.258 

attribute  of  the  divine  character  is  wanting 
in  this  unique  man,  who,  in  all  the  loneliness 
of  his  early  life,  was  unconsciously  schooled, 
trained,  perfected  and  graduated  in  all   that 
was  honest,  natural,  capable  and  kind.     As  a 
flat-boatman  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans  he 
saw,  for  the  first  time,  negro  boys  and  girls 
and  young  women  put  up  and  sold  as  chattels 
upon  the  auction  block,  and   then   and  there 
the  mordant  sunk  deep  into  his  very  soul,  and 
he  said  to  his  companion,   "Thafs  wrong,  and 
if  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  it,  by  God,  Pit  Jiit 
it  hard"     The  "painted  lizard"  of  human 
slavery  had  been  photographed  forever  on  his 
mind  and  memory,  and    he   bided  his    time 
with  the  patience  of  a   God    until    the    day 
should  come  and  until  the  hour  had  struck 
when,  with  a  single  blow,  he  could  make  good 
that  oath,  and  so,  later  in  life,  we  see  him, 
amid    the   billows  and  blood    of  war,  as    he 
calmly  says,   "Wait  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God  " — and  so   it  is  that  the  hitman   race  is 
waiting  to  see,  as  the  years  go  by,  the  salva- 
tion of  eternal  right  forever  triumphant  over 
wrong  and  made  possible  by  his  patience  and 
perfect  humanity. 


259 

His  patience,  however,  did  not  weaken  him 
or  class  him  as  quiescent,  for  when  imposed 
upon  and  crowded  toward  insult  or  cowardice, 
or  if  his  cause,  when  justly  stated,  was  as- 
sailed by  injustice  or  brutality  the  sleeping 
lion  showed  his  fangs  and  his  giant  wrath 
seldom  found  any  bully  rash  enough  to  stand 
in  his  way  when  he  accepted  a  challenge. 
His  powerful  exhibition  when  forced  by  taunt 
to  twice  throw  the  champion  Need  ham  at 
Wabash  Point ;  his  righteous  rage  at  New 
Salem  when  the  leader  of  the  bullies  of  Clary's 
Grove,  Jack  Armstrong,  tried  by  foul  means, 
to  get  the  advantage  over  him,  and  again 
when  his  excited  men  in  the  Black  Hawk 
War  attempted  to  kill  the  friendly  Indian, 
defying  practically  the  brawn  and  muscle  of 
the  whole  regiment,  all  prove  his  practical 
manliness,  if  occasion  demanded,  and  such 
was  his  physical  prowess  that  few  men  in  all 
that  Western  country  ever  wished  to  dispute 
his  standing. 

The  great  dream  of  the  centuries  seems  to 
have  blossomed  in  his  eventful  life,  and  the 
more  we  learn  of  it  the  more  we  come  to 


260 


realize  and  to  know  that  in  him  was  the  Per- 
fect Man  in  the  sanest  and  soundest  sense  of 
the  word,  physically,  mentally  and  morally. 
Poverty  made  him  good  ;  suffering  made  him 
great ;  circumstances  made  him  President ; 
fidelity  made  him  beloved  ;  courage  made  him 
heroic  and  martyrdom  made  him  immortal. 

You  may  search  the  minutest  records  of 
recorded  time  and  you  cannot  find  another 
character  who  made  so  few  mistakes  during 
the  chaos  of  such  trying  ordeals,  or  who  pos- 
sessed on  all  great  occasions  that  sublimity  of 
faith  and  courage  in  action,  as  mark  and 
make  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln ; 
neither  could  you  find  another  man  who- 
could  control,  and  even  guide  to  glory,  all 
his  impetuous  subordinates  in  the  heat  of 
conflict  and  yet  without  offence  compel  them 
to  unconscious  obedience  in  the  fulfillment  of 
a  destiny  which  he  alone  could  read  in  the 
dusk  of  deathless  performance. 

The  record  of  this  world  does  not  show  an- 
other character  who  was  schooled  in  almost 
continuous  failure  in  youth  and  early  man- 
hood, in  order  that  he  might  the  better  serve 


a6i 


as  the  successful  and  great  commander  in  the 
most  momentous  epoch  of  human  progress. 
No  where  in  the  library  of  nations  can  you 
find  another  character  so  varied  in  all  experU. 
ences,  and  yet  where  every  experience  was 
clearly  given  for  the  perfect  formation  of  a 
character  unique  and  matchless.  Look  back 
over  forty  years  and  see  a  boy  ever  obedient, 
even  where  obedience  was  not  especially  com- 
mendable, yet  always  obedient ;  as  a  son,, 
wise,  thoughtful  and  obliging;  as  a  pupil  al- 
most a  prodigy,  and  with  a  burning  zeal  for 
useful  knowledge  beyond  all  precedent ;  as  a 
boatman,  capable  of  utilizing  the  rough  ex- 
perience of  the  Mississippi  river  ;  as  a  soldier 
in  the  Black  Hawk  War,  little  better  than  a 
failure  because  his  heart  was  too  big  to  ex-v 
ercise  the  cruelties  of  Indian  warfare  ;  as  a 
lover,  sincere,  poetic  and  ideal,  almost  to  the 
border  line  of  insanity  ;  as  a  debater,  candid > 
clear,  oiiginal,  truthful;  as  a  lawyer,  honor- 
able, just,  logical ;  as  a  writer,  fair,  wittyv 
useful  ;  as  a  candidate,  weak,  but  earnest  and 
ever  conscious  of  his  superiority  ;  as  an  an- 
tagonist, formidable,  real,  full  of  surprises  and 


262 


dangerous ;  as  a  victor,  modest,  gracious  and 
benevolent ;  as  a  man,  possibly  crafty,  for  a 
good  purpose,  but  always  natural,  frank  and 
winning  and  always  commanding  and  con- 
scious of  his  higher  qualifications;  as  a  leader, 
slow,  always  preparing,  always  aware  of  the 
gravity  of  the  situation,  action  well-timed, 
and  always  sustained  ;  as  a  patriot,  ambitious, 
but  an  ambition  that  never  crowded  or  even 
approached  the  limit  of  his  patriotism,  there- 
fore absolutely  safe  in  all  emergencies  ;  as  a 
martyr,  beautiful  beyond  that  of  saint  or 
scientist,  and  as  a  memory  his  was  and  is  the 
dearest,  the  gentlest  and  most  God-like. 

I  have  seen  Abraham  Lincoln  and  heard 
his  voice.  This  is  to  me  a  happy  recollec- 
tion. '  From  my  childhood  to  this  hour  I 
have  always  kept  every  printed  word  which 
has  fallen  from  his  lips.  It  is  the  literary 
pride  of  my  life  that  I  have  preserved  with 
loving  care  all  the  books,  works,  biographies, 
and  printed  souvenirs  of  this  real  man  of 
men,  until  now  I  shall  soon  pass  the  1,000- 
volume  line  and  still  know  that  the  future  is 
growing  with  new  works  perennially.  With 


263 

other  men  it  was  literary  achievement  ;  the 
triumphs  of  war  ;  the  aggrandizement  of  con- 
quest ;  the  glory  of  new  discovery,  or  the 
flight  of  imagination  in  the  kingdom  of  art  or 
song;  but  with  Lincoln  it  was  character, 
character,  CHARACTER.  This  is  why  his  name 
grows  with  each  succeeding  year.  This  is 
why  our  American  schools,  as  well  as  the 
schools  in  foreign  lands,  are  making  the  i2th 
day  of  February  a  green  spot  in  the  dusty 
road  of  school  routine,  and  are  telling  to  the 
millions  of  boys  and  girls  the  story  of  a  true 
patriot,  a  pure  man,  a  character  beyond  re- 
proach, the  safest  model  of  citizenship,  the 
Agamemnon  of  moral  power  throughout  the 
world. 

It  is  the  pride  of  millions  of  men  and  wo- 
men to  be  able  to  say,  "/  have  seen  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  heard  his  voice."  Time  will  en- 
hance the  value  of  everything  he  ever  touched 
and  hallow  his  every  word.  No  other  charac- 
ter is  known  to  the  children  of  men  who  was 
more  bashful  or  tenderly  sensitive  to  direct 
-compliment.  No  man  ever  feared  praise  more 
than  he,  and  no  man  ever  possessed  a  su- 


264 

premer  contempt  or  indifference  to  unjust 
criticism  or  slander,  and  no  man  ever  lived: 
who  was  more  conscious  of  his  own  actual 
worth  and  his  ability  to  use  that  worth  for 
the  good  of  others.  No  man  at  his  death  was 
ever  so  universally  or  so  sincerely  mourned, 
as  Lincoln.  The  world  wept  as  a  young  child 
at  its  father's  bier.  His  funeral  train  was 
fourteen  hundred  miles  long  and  his  mourners 
moistened  with  sincerity's  tears  the  soil  of 
every  civilized  land,  while  official  history  re- 
quired nine  hundred  and  thirty  pages  to  print 
the  plain  record  of  telegram,  resolution  and 
sorrow  of  the  nations. 

He  was  not  really  an  orator,  as  the  world 
goes,  yet  his  speech  on  the  battlefield  of 
Gettysburg,  his  inaugural  address  are  terse 
and  treasured  classics  and  ranks  with  any  say- 
ings that  time  has  preserved  from  the  lips  or 
pen  of  Cicero,  Pericles,  Phillip  or  Phocian. 
No  orator  ever  touched  the  tender  cords  which 
sweep  the  heartstrings  in  the  soul  of  woman- 
hood more  deftly  than  he  when  he  said,  while 
pleading  the  case  of  the  widow  of  the  old 
soldier  of  1812  :  "Time  rolls  on.  The  heroes 


265 

of  1776  have  passed  away  and  are  encamped 
on  the  other  shore.  The  old  soldier  has  gone 
to  his  rest. —  Crippled,  blinded  and  broken,  his 
widow  comes  to  me  and  to  you,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  to  right  her  wrongs.  She  was  not  always 
thus.  She  was  once  beautiful  as  the  morning. 
Her  step  was  as  light,  her  face  as  fair  and  her 
voice  as  sweet  as  ever  rung  in  the  lanes  of  old  Vir- 
ginia. Now  she  is  poor,  defenseless.  Shall  we, 
too,  cast  her  of?  "  His  courtroom  was  in  tears.. 
His  suit  was  won. 

No  man  ever  held  woman  in  higher  esteem 
than  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  woman  to-day  is 
his  loyal  lover  and  defence,  through  ill  and 
good  report,  and  through  her  there  shall  be 
engravened  the  ideal  Lincoln  in  tlie  minds  of 
millions  yet  unborn. 

If  all  men  could  be  like  Lincoln  there 
would  be  no  need  of  heaven.  His  pattern 
was  formed  in  the  Foundry  of  Fate,  and  when 
the  world's  greatest  epoch  had  closed  the 
mould  was  found  to  fit  "the  head  of  the  cor- 
ner." See  his  tall  form  sway  under  a  sorrow 
almost  infinite  as  he  stands  at  the  cofHn  of 
his  dead  benefactor,  Bowlin  Greene,  and 


266 


although  a  man  of  thirty-three,  his  heart 
breaks  with  uncontrolled  emotion  as  lie  tries 
to  speak  the  words  of  gratitude  and  tender 
eulogy  which  he  longed  to  express,  but  in 
the  agony  of  his  soul's  despair  he  fails  to 
make  a  sound,  and,  in  a  burst  of  overwhelm- 
ing tears  and  groans,  he  leaves  the  scene. 
Never  did  a  human  heart  offer  to  the  dead  a 
truer  tribute.  Language  can  never  tell  the 
depth  of  his  feelings  and  history  will  never 
record  a  wail  more  tender  or  a  lay  more  sweet 
and  divine. 

When  the  tender  life  of  his  first  pure  love 
went  out  and  Ann  Rutledge  was  laid  in  her 
grave  ;  his  was  the  pathetic  voice  which,  in 
poignant  grief,  cried  aloud  as  his  vanishing 
reason  all  but  left  him  :  "/  can  never  let  the 
rains,  the  snow  and  the  storms ^beat  upon  her 
grave!"  A  deeper  anguish  never  pierced 
the  heart  of  an  honest  man  since  Christ  wept 
in  Gethsemane. 

Oh,  what  a  legacy,  what  a  heritage  for  us 
and  ours  and  our  heirs  forever  after  us,  and 
for  the  world,  as  Time,  the  Saviour  reveals 
his  growing  worth  !  Oh,  the  great,  broad, 


267 

patient,  courageous  man,  so  calm  in  the  tem- 
pest that  radicals  could  not  rush  him  and  the 
trumpet  of  war  could  not  intimidate  him  ! 
His  was  the  courage  of  the  sublimest  order  ; 
absolutely  perfect  in  faith  and  that  faith 
founded  upon  eternal  justice  and  upon  his 
perfect  trust  in  a  God  of  justice,  and  in  his 
own  people  and  upon  his  own  true  and  right- 
eous self.  You  have  but  to  put  your  ear  to 
the  welded  rail  of  the  past  and  the  echoes  of 
forty  years  will  come  back  to  you,  and  above 
the  din  and  confusion  of  that  awful  period  you 
will  hear  the  clear,  patriotic  voice  of  a  nation 
and  that  triumphant  song, 

"  We  are    coming,  Father  Abraham,   three  hundred 
thousand  more.11 

This  mighty  surge  of  song  is  not  the  wail 
of  despair  nor  the  measured  tone  of  defiance, 
but  the  belated  and  mighty  response  of  thirty 
millions  of  patriots  sounding  the  cry  which 
comes  from  the  deep,  welling  passion  of 
patriotism,  echoing  across  plain  and  river, 
and  over  hill  and  mountain  top,  that  a  million 
defenders  invincible  as  an  army  with  banners 
were  coming  in  response  to  his  righteous  call 


268 


to  save  from  dissolution  and  death  the  one  na- 
tion which  was  and  is,  and  is  to  be,  the  hope  of 
the  world. 

How  strange  it  all  seems  to  us  now  !  The 
world  will  always  see  him,  in  the  National 
-storm  of  passion  and  the  flow  of  fraternal 
blood,  a  moral  hero,  and  in  the  blast  that 
blinded,  he  held  the  helm  of  State  for  four 
dark  and  terrible  years,  and  until  Fate  had 
become  fulfillment,  and  then  in  the  sunshine 
of  peace  he  appeared  in  the  Capital  of  Rebel- 
lion like  a  closing  tableau,  holding  the  trust- 
ing hand  of  his  innocent  boy  while  the  fren- 
zied negro  bows  in  almost  idolatrous  worship 
.at  his  feet,  and  then  he  is  suddenly  lifted,  as  by 
some  design  of  fatality,  to  the  realm  of  earthly 
immortality.  It  verily  seems  as  if  Fate  did 
play  with  dates  and  events,  for  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  very  day  when  the  starry  flag 
of  Ft.  Sumter  bowed  to  the  bellowing  guns  of 
Beauregard  four  years  before,  Beecher  and  his 
compatriots  restored  it,  in  the  harbor  of  Charles- 
ton, to  the  breeze  of  Heaven,  and  yet  before 
its  folds  had  fairly  caught  the  joyous  inspira- 
tion and  while  darkness  settled  upon  the  land 


269 

that  night  his  life  went  out  by  the  hand  of  the 
assassin. 

No  man  is  ever  seen  so  tenderly  as  when 
humanity  beholds  him  through  the  mellow 
vail  of  suffering  and  undeserved  adversity.  It 
is  then  we  realize  the  force  of  the  sentiment 
that, 

"  Chords  that  vibrate  sweetest  music, 
Sound  the  deepest  notes  of  woe." 

It  can  never  be  said  that  religious  fanaticism 
aided  him  essentially  in  the  completion  of  his 
world  task ;  neither  that  personal  ambition 
rallied  him  to  sudden  success,  and  although 
success  was  his  ruling  motive,  and  was,  all  in 
all,  and  through  it  all,  his  guiding  star,  yet 
that  success  was  grounded  upon  the  solid  rock 
of  truth,  and  through  the  darkness  of  that 
wildest  and  most  tempestuous  night  of  sorrow 
and  suffering  he  stood,  the  central  figure  look- 
ing over  and  above  the  heads  of  his  contem- 
poraries, like  the  giant  he  was,  surveying  the 
end  and  seeing  the  triumphant  vision  which 
was  to  mark  the  closing  of  the  most  remarka- 
ble conflict  which  ever  sanctified  the  battle- 
ground of  nations. 


270 

It  is  true  that  there  have  been  other  patriots 
in  other  lands  than  ours,  and  it  is  true  that 
patriotism  has  lived  as  a  principle  in  all  the 
ages  of  the  past,  and  that  there  has  existed 
the  calm  of  dignity  and  the  conciousness  of 
power  all  through  the  centuries,  but  there  has 
never  been  but  one  Lincoln. 

Other  men  have  been  earnest  and  other  men 
have  been  great,  and  even  sincere,  and  what 
is  still  more,  have  been  kind^and  useful  to  their 
fellow  men  and  have  helped  to  grace  and  crown 
the  ages,  and  yet,  /  say,  there  has  never  been 
but  one  Lincoln. 

He  did  not  believe  in  Christ  but  he  did  be- 
lieve in  a  God  of  Justice,  in  a  God  that  could 
not  tolerate  human  slavery  or  injustice  among 
his  human  kind.  He  had  lived  to  learn  and 
to  know  that  his  own  judgment  of  men  was 
reliable  and  right,  and  hence  he  gradually, 
but  easily  and  certainly,  overshadowed  all  his 
associates  and  contemporaries,  and  as  a  char- 
acter, stands  alone  from  his  rough-hewn  cradle 
to  his  marbled  tomb.  In  all  that  eventful 
journey  he  knew  his  own  ability  rightly  and 
neither  over-estimated  it  nor  under-estimated 


271 

it,  and  he  dared  to  assume  dangerous  posts 
of  duty,  and  yet  never  flinched  or  doubted. 
He  was  therefore  greater  than  the  greatest 
man  of  his  time.  He  is  the  Agamemnon  of 
history. 

No  other  man  in  history  seems  ever  to  have 
centered  and  focused  universal  interest  in  his 
every  and  minutest  acts  and  personal  character- 
istics like  Lincoln.  When  standing  he  towered 
above  his  famous  opponent,  Douglas,  fourteen 
inches,  but  when  both  were  seated  side  by  side 
he  was  but  four  inches  higher,  so  exceptional 
were  his  legs  and  arms  in  length  compared 
with  his  body. 

In  the  Illinois  Legislature  heibelonged  to  the 
famons  "  Long  Nine,"  the  name  applied  to  the 
nine  members  from  his  section,  of  which  he 
was  the  tallest,  and  was  called  the  "  Sangamon 
Chief,"  their  combined  hight  being  fifty-five 
feet.  To  them  and  to  him  were  due  the  suc- 
cess of  changing  the  State  Capital  from  Van- 
dalia  to  Springfield,  Sangamon  county,  in 


It  is  remarkable  how  many  men  afterward 
famous  were  associated  with]  Lincoln  during 


272 

liis  early  or  active  life,  including  Peter  Cart- 
wright,  famous  preacher  ;  Colonel  Ellsworth, 
first  to  fall  in  war  ;*  Colonel  Baker,  hero  who 
fell  at  Ball's  Bluff;  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  patriot 
and  opponent ;  Senator  L/yman  Trumbull, 
Governor  Bissell,  General  John  A.McClernand, 
Judge  David  Davis  and  others. 

He  was  born  close  to  the  famous  Mason  and 
Dixon's  Line,  about  39°  33'  north  latitude, 
marking  the  line  limit  of  slavery  and  hence 
naturally  conservative  as  to  Northern  and 
Southern  opinions. 

He  was  not  wholly  free  from  the  local  super- 
stitions of  the  Kentucky  pioneer  times,  and 
the  quick  and  living  secrets  of  nature,  while 
real  and  understood,  still  carried  a  tinge  of  the 
marvellous,  for  night  winds,  dark  forests, 
swelling  streams,  cries  of  wild  beasts,  sudden 
deaths,  moaning  trees,  and  avenging  storms, 
sometimes  suggest  strange  thoughts  to  the 
wisest  minds. 

The  well-timed  hit  on  the  lightning  rod  of 
the  not  over-consistent  George  Forquer,  in  his 
legislative  canvass,  recalls  his  clear  and  force- 
ful side  when  his  opponent  assumed  in  public 


t  273 

the  air  of  a  superior  and  prodded  young  Lin- 
coln on  his  coarse  dress  of  homespun  clothes, 
with  lack  of  experience  and  ability,  and  Lin- 
coln in  thoughtful  manner  replied  and,  review 
ing  Forquer's  follies  and  gullible  nature  as 
the  prey  of  seductive  agents,  said  that  while 
he  perhaps  had  many  or  most  of  the  faults 
ascribed  to  him,  he  was  grateful  that  he  "  did 
not  have  to  erect  a  lightning  rod  over  his  home 
to  ward  off  the  vengeance  of  an  offended  God  " 
as  Forquer  had.  As  lightning  rods  were  just 
then  introduced  and  under  ban  with  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Illinois  people  Forquer  was 
silenced. 

The  Shields  incident,  when  Lincoln  was 
forced  as  he  thought  to  accept  a  challenge  to 
fight  a  duel, 'after  writing  the  annonymous 
letter  as  a  widow  from  the  "Lost  Township,'' 
shows  his  final  faith  and  reliance  in  sound  every 
day  man  sense.  James  Shields  was  State  Audi- 
tor, and  a  rather  excitable  Irish  gentleman  from 
Tyrone,  Ireland,  and  took  mortal  offense  at  the 
letters,  as  he  imagined  as  a  Democrat  that  they 
reflected  upon  his  personal  honesty  in  office, 
and  no  amount  of  persuasion  by  friends  could 


2/4   . 

satisfy  him  of  Lincoln's  intended  good  nature,, 
and  so  the  challenge  was  forced  upon  Lincoln ,, 
and  having  choice  of  weapons,  he,  on  the  same 
principle  which  in  later  years  actuated  John 
F.  Porter  in  Congress  with  Pryor,  chose  cav- 
alry broadswords.  The  day  came  and  the 
parties  met — Shields,  a  little,  large-headed 
and  fiery  man,  and  Lincoln  of  giant  stature. 
At  the  final  moment  Shields  gladly  agreed  to- 
withdraw  if  his  antagonist  would  assert  that 
he  only  meant  to  make  a  political  point  as  a 
Whig  against  a  Democrat.  Lincoln  sensibly 
agreed.  Asked  later  what  he  intended  to  do- 
had  they  fought,  he  said,  "  I  should  have  used 
the  advantage  of  my  arms  and  legs  and  simply 
split  him  from  head  to  heel." 

It  was  nothing  less  than  unique  that  upon 
his  election  to  the  Presidency  he  should  ap- 
point as  his  Cabinet  and  constant  advisers  the 
very  men  who  were  his  opponents  in  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  for  the  nomina- 
tion at  Chicago  in  1860,  and  yet  by  that  act 
he  had  calmed  and  pacified  all  wounded  aspi- 
rations, and  though  regarded  as  a  dangerous 
move  politically,  it  showed  Lincoln's  just  and 


275 

benevolent  heart,  his  far-seeing  judgment  and 
his  calm  consciousness  in  his  own  ability  to 
remain  absolutely  President  and.Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United 
States. 

The  offense  and  as  some  felt,  the  ungrate- 
ful if  not  disloyal,  conduct  of  his  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  in  the 
treacherous  storm  and  excitement  of  his  sec- 
ond campaign  in  1864,  when  Chase  publicly 
became  a  candidate  against  his  chief,  again 
showed  how  truly  great  Lincoln  was,  and  his 
words  on  this  occasion  and  his  subsequent  act 
in  appointing  Secretary  Chase,  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
proves  him  the  towering  political  master  and 
safe,  unselfish  patriot  that  he  was. 

The  intense  honesty  shown  in  his  settling 
accounts  with  the  Government  when  post- 
master at  New  Salem,  when  he  months  after- 
wards produced  the  exact  amount  to  a  dollar 
and  a  cent  in  the  adjustment,  and  not  only 
•exact  but  the  identical  coins  received  by  him 
in  the  office,  all  laid  away  sacredly  awaiting 


276 

the  official  accounting,  although  he  had  been- 
sorely  pressed  in  the  meantime  for  money. 

His  stories  have  been  retold,  repeated  and 
revamped  until  much  falsehood  has  been 
mixed  with  original,  all  of  which  were 
pointed  and  practical  and  always  prepared 
and  thought  out  for  purpose  and  to  convince 
forcibly.  A  Lincoln  story  usually  carries  its 
own  evidence  of  truth  and  originality.  Some- 
times they  carried  not  only  conviction  but 
were  calculated  to  cut  or  even  humiliate  if 
necessary.  When  his  early  antagonist  at  law, 
rather  fresh  and  frothy,  had  talked  at  a  rapid 
rate  until  he  had  tired  court  and  jury,  and  for 
lack  of  facts  sat  down,  to  the  relief  of  all, 
Lincoln  in  his  thoughtful  way  said  :  "Your 
honor  has  observed  the  misfortune  of  the  op- 
posing counsel,  as  it  is  clear  that  he  cannot 
work  his  mind  and  his  voice  at  the  same 
time,  for  the  instant  his  tongue  starts  it  goes 
so  fast  that  the  mind  ceases  to  act.  In  fact 
he  reminds  me  of  the  first  steam  vessel  which 
appeared  on  the  Sangamon  river.  It  was 
noted  for  its  efforts  to  navigate  with  ease,  but 
it  had  a  five-foot  whistle  and  only  a  three-foot 


277 

boiler,  and  every  time  they  blew  the  whistle 
the  boat  had  to  stop  still."  This  carries  the 
true  Lincoln  brand. 

The  coarse  jokes  attributed  to  Lincoln  never 
existed,  and  his  intimates  give  testimony  to 
that  fact.  In  his  associations  with  his  Cabi- 
net members  he  gave  constant  proof  of  his 
innate  manliness,  and  nothing  pleased  him 
more  in  business  meetings  or  official  work 
than  for  all  to  call  him  Lincoln.  He  disliked 
to  be  called  Mr.  President  or  Your  Excel- 
lency, but  felt  relief  to  be  called  Lincoln,  and 
always  spoke  to  his  Ministers  as  Bates,  Stan- 
ton,  Chase  and  Seward,  though  he  never 
missed  seeing  and  appreciating  the  ludicrous 
and  funny  side  to  all  things. 

He  was  born  a  reasoner,  and  when  a  mere 
boy,  after  borrowing  a  copy  of  Weem's  Life 
of  Washington,  and  having  left  it  in  the  log 
crevice  in  his  Indiana  home  where  it  got 
soaked  by  a  shower  during  the  night,  he 
agreed  to  work  three  days  pulling  corn  for  the 
close-fisted  Crawford  to  settle  the  account;  he 
first  asked  if  the  three  days'  work  was  to  pay 
for  the  damage  done  the  book  or  for  the  book 


278 

itself,  and  as  Crawford  thought  the  book  of 
no  use,  he  said  it  would  pay  for  the  book, 
and  so  Lincoln  became  owner  of  his  first 
actual  book,  and  it  proved  a  good  bargain 
too  ;  and  many  a  reader  to-day  would  gladly 
pay  three  hundred  dollars  for  this  same  book 
could  they  secure  it  for  posterity. 

His  check  for  $5.00,  made  out  while  Presi- 
dent, payable  to  "the  one-legged  colored  man 
or  bearer,"  and  which  has  been  immortalized 
by  the  Lincoln  History  Society  of  New  York 
City  ;  his  letter  to  the  little  boy  who  met  him 
on  the  street  after  he  was  nominated  for  Pres- 
ident, spoke  to  him  and  shook  hands  with 
him,  and  who  was  taunted  by  his  playmates 
in  Springfield  afterward  for  claiming  Lin- 
coln's acquaintance,  until  the  great-hearted 
man  wrote  in  answer  to  the  boy's  childish 
letter  of  appeal  and  stated  over  his  signature 
while  President  of  the  United  States,  that  he 
was  glad  to  certify  that  he  saw  and  remem- 
bered the  boy  and  shook  hands  with  him,  and 
thus  the  boy  became  a  hero. 

This  same  sincerity  and  frankness  was  ever 
liis  strength  and  safety,  and  served  as  faith- 


279 

fully  in  the  diplomacy  of  Nations  and  as 
easily  and  verily  changed  the  fate  of  the 
American  Continent,  for  while  the  trained 
and  erudite  Seward  battled  nervously  with 
the  ponderous  and  lugubrious  ambiguities  of 
Lord  Pahnerston,  Lincoln  had  written  a  plain 
letter  in  plain  and  touching  language  to 
Queen  Victoria  direct,  and  appealed  to  her  as 
a  pure  and  noble  woman  to  assure  him  in 
his  trying  ordeal  against  the  sins  of  a  century, 
that  his  efforts  as  a  man  threatened  by  re- 
bellion yet  seeking  to  maintain  a  friendly 
government  in  opposition  to  the  spread  of  hu- 
man slavery,  should  not  be  injured  and 
weighted  by  England's  enmity.  On  a  bright 
Sunday  morning  he  received  her  more  than 
Queenly  answer  by  mail,  saying  she  realized 
the  burdens  and  dangers  to  his  government, 
and  that  slavery  should  not  receive  her  aid  or 
influence,  and  that  the  American  government 
under  his  guidance  would  never  need  to  fear 
from  her  people  while  she  was  acknowledged 
Queen  of  England.  He  had  won  by  a  man's 
sense  what  diplomacy  never  secured,  and  it 


280 


was  long  afterward  that  Seward  learned  this 
great  historic  fact. 

Lincoln's  was  the  faith  that  never  faltered, 
and  was  built  on  truth  and  sense. 

Lincoln  was  pure  in  heart.  He  not  only 
loved  right,  but  he  was  grand  enough  to  do 
right.  He  hated  wrong  and  he  did  no  wrong. 
He  forgave  to  the  last  and  loved  forgiveness 
itself,  and  yet  he  needed  little  or  none  for 
himself.  Hear  his  tender,  fatherly  voice  as 
he  whispers  to  little  "  Blossom  "  the  pardon 
for  her  erring  brother.  See  him  as  he  dic- 
tates that  immortal  dispatch  saving  the  tired 
soldier  and  sleeping  sentinel,  Scott,  from  an 
unmerited  death.  Think  of  his  transcendent 
attitude  in  his  position  of  almost  unlimited 
power,  as  his  acts  of  forgiveness  fret  and  chafe 
the  impatient  generals  who  clamor  for  disci- 
pline at  the  expense  of  life,  as  he  says  :  "Gen- 
tlemen, I  cannot  take  the  lives  of  these  boys  who 
love  their  country  but  who  have  broken  the  rules 
of  warfare  in  obedience  to  the  demands  of  ex- 
hausted nature.'1'1  His  mantle  has  fallen  upon 
no  man.  It  is  the  heritage  of  America,  the 


28l 


crown  jewel  of  the  world,  and  the  hand  of 
sacrilege  alone  shall  ever  touch  it. 

Let  not  the  prude  or  the  supercilious  as- 
sume to  blush  at  his  humble,  or  even  doubtful 
origin.  Let  them  brush  their  dormant  intel- 
ligence and  remember  who  was  William  the 
Conqueror  of  England,  and  who  was  Charles 
Martel  or  u  Charles  the  Hammer,"  who  saved 
Christian  civilization  to  Europe  and  who 
drove  back  the  swelling  tide  of  Moslemism  in 
the  decisive  battle  of  Poitiers.  Let  them  re- 
member that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  man  and 
as  a  man  was  the  greatest  compliment  that  has 
ever  been  given  or  paid  to  the  linman  race,  and 
likewise  that  he  was  never  the  champion  of 
the  prude,  the  dude  or  the  false ;  and  aris- 
tocracy has  no  power  to  either  harm  or 
heighten  his  glory  now,  and  neither  prudes,, 
puppets  nor  apologizers  have  any  place  in  the 
following  of  his  mighty  train. 

Lincoln  could  not  sing  a  note,  but  music 
was  to  his  soul  a  thing  divine,  and  poetry  and 
song  may  lay  their  garlands  upon  his  tomb 
with  perfect  confidence  for  his  character  can 
absorb  all  their  beauties  and  will  glorify  every 


282 


author.  His  was  the  hand  that  wrote  the 
request :  "  Please  ask  Philip  Phillips  to  sing 
again  to-night  '  Your  Mission,*1  but  do  not  say 
I  said  so." 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  man  who  gave  his 
first  biographer  a  kindly,  but  knowing  look 
when  he  found  that  he  had  stated  that  Lin- 
coln had  read  Plutarch's  Lives  and  had  turned 
their  sterling  virtues  to  his  own  good  account 
and  character,  who  did  not  even  correct  the 
statement  in  the  proof-sheet ;  but  a  week 
later  when  that  same  proof-sheet  had  been 
revised  and  was  then  ready  for  the  printer,  he, 
with  equal  kindness,  and  with  a  twinkling 
-eye,  informed  his  biographer,  Mr.  John  Locke 
Scripps,  that  in  the  meantime  he  had  read  Plu- 
tarch from  cover  to  cover  and  had  not  skipped 
€ven  a  single  word,  and  that  now  the  biogra- 
phy was  correct  and  true  and  might  be  printed. 

Here  is  a  man  who,  while  he  may  have 
.said  boyish  things,  and  even  followed  the 
rougher  customs  of  rollicking  youth  in  the 
sturdy  land  of  the  pioneer,  yet  in  all  the  years 
of  the  prime  of  Jus  manhood  he  was  never  known 
io  say  a  foolish  thing.  A  man  who  constantly 


283 

believed  in  himself  and  believed  that  he  was 
being  fitted  for  a  great  purpose  and  went  on 
patiently,  and  not  unconsciously,  preparing 
to  accept  the  highest  post  when  the  hour 
should  strike.  A  man  who  was  never  sur- 
prised by  the  biggest  events  ;  the  patient,  sad, 
and  yet  ever-rippling  humorist  who  was  great 
enough  in  the  darkest  hour  to  turn  the  serious 
incident  into  sunshine  and  laughter,  thus  giv- 
ing to  his  nature  that  natural  and  joyous  vent 
from  the  dangers  of  growing  and  crushing 
responsibility. 

The  man  who  never  received  or  paid  out  an 
ill-earned  or  dishonest  dollar  in  his  whole  life. 

The  man  to  whom  criticism  and  discour- 
agements served  only  as  friction  the  better  to 
propel  the  great  engine  of  his  mind  as  it 
tugged  on  the  up-grade  of  events.  The  man 
who  stood  self-poised  while  he  saw  and  real- 
ized that  the  die  was  being  cast  and  saw  the 
molten  metal  of  his  own  wondrous  history 
poured  into  the  mould  of  immortality. 

Surely  Fate  loved  Lincoln,  and  in  her  long- 
ings she  gave  him  the  deathless  kiss  that  he 
might  never  leave  her. 

While  others  quaked  with  fear  at  the  gath- 


284 

ering  storm  he  grasped  the  helm  with  giant 
grip  as  the  great  Ship  of  State  rode  into  the 
roar  and  crash  of  the  hurricane  and  held  it 
firm  and  safe  until  the  lightnings  had  ceased 
to  play  and  until  the  vanishing  clouds  threw 
their  lessening  shadows  over  her  deck,  and 
until  the  big  waves  had  done  their  worst  and 
until  ripples  only  patted  her  storm-beaten 
sides  and  the  great  white  harbor  was  once 
more  in  view  with  its  sunshine  and  its  peace. 
Romance  and  miracle  blend  in  the  heavens 
as  the  sun  bursts  upon  the  scene,  for  as  the 
last,  long  peal  of  thunder  dies  away  in  the 
distance,  and  the  Rainbow  of  Peace  appears  : 
a  sudden  bolt  from  the  clearing  sky  struck 
him  dumb  and  dead  on  the  deck  and  the  Great 
Loving  Captain  had  gone  to  his  reward  in  the 
flo^ver  of  his  faith  and  in  the  full  strength  of 
his  giant  manhood. 

It  has  been  said  that  "God  buries  his  work- 
man but  carries  on  his  work,"  and  this  great 
truth  covers  ".the  life  and  {martyrdom  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  the  bravest,  the  most  courageous, 
the  most  useful,  the  kindest,  the  tenderest,  the 
sweetest  memory  that  has  thus  far  appeared,  in  hu- 
man form,  within  the  Vestibule  of  Time. 


PART  V.— ENLOE  GENEALOGY. 

Following  we  submit  in  the  form  of  per- 
sonal correspondence  the  result  of  the  re- 
search of  certain  branches  of  the  family. 
These  letters  were  interchanged  beginning  in 
1894,  four  years  before  the  writer  knew  any- 
thing of  this  book,  and  ending  with  1899 
when  the  publication  had  quickened  interest. 
They  are  printed  verbatim  from  original 
manuscript  forwarded  us  by  the  courtesy  of 
Dr.  I.  N.  Enloe,  of  Jefferson  City,  Mo.,  and  to 
which  we  have  alluded  in  our  introduction. 
We  invite  the  reader's  careful  study  of  our 
Enloe  genesis  throughout  for  in  it  history 
may  have  an  honorable  Scotch  origin  for 
Abraham  Lincoln.  In  a  future  edition,  more 
elaborate  throughout,  we  purpose  to  include 
a  full  history  of  the  Enloes.  This  edition 
with  its  predecessors  are  particularly  meant 
hastily  to  recover  and  secure  passing  data 
upon  the  tradition  : 

JEFFERSON  CITY,  Mo.,  June  23,  1899. 
Dr.  Thomas  E.  Enloe,  Nashville,  Tenn.  : 

DEAR  SIR  AND  FRIEND  : — In  compliance 


286 


with  your  request  and  my  promise  made  at 
Nashville,  August  29,  1898,  while  on  my 
way  to  Chickamauga — will  now  give  you  such 
ready  and  accessible  information  as  I  possess 
in  regard  to  the  Enloe  family,  by  submitting 
a  copy  (corrected  and  revised)  of  a  letter  writ- 
ten to  Sam  G.  Enloe,  of  Mulberry  Grove,  111., 
bearing  date  of  May  5,  1894,  also  his  reply  of 
May  n,  1894,  which  read  as  follows  : 

JEFFERSON    ClTY,    Mo.,  May    5,  1894. 
Sam  G,  Enloe,  Mulberry  Grove,  III.: 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  in  regard  to  our 
relationship,  to  hand  and  noted.  Am  satis- 
fied we  are  of  the  same  stock  or  family.  Your 
great-grandfather  and  my  great-grandfather 
were  brothers,  provided  your  father  and  B.  A. 
Enloe's  father  were  cousins  (that  is  first  full 
cousins),  but  am  satisfied  they  must  have  been 
second  or  third  cousins. 

Now,  I  will  proceed  to  tell  you  my  rela- 
tionship to  the  8th  District  Congressman  of 
Jackson,  Tenn.,  and  then  you  can  figure  out 
our  relationship.  I  am  next  to  the  youngest 
son  of  Enoch  Enloe,  he  the  oldest  son  of 


.287 

James  Enloe,  who  was  a  full  brother  to  Isaac 
Enloe  ;  Isaac  being  the  grandfather  of  Benj. 
A.  Enloe,  the  Congressman.  Isaac  and  James 
Enloe  were  both  born  in  York  county,  South 
Carolina,  about  1791  and  1793  respectively. 
They  were  reared  by  their  half  brother,  Ben- 
jamin, the  only  brother  they  had,  so  far  as  I 
know.  So  you  can  see  from  the  above  that  I 
and  B.  A.  Enloe,  of  Jackson,  Tenn.,  are  great- 
grand  sons,  he  of  Isaac  and  I  of  James  Enloe. 
They  having  a  half  brother  by  name  of  Ben, 
and  the  three  were  the  sons  of  Enoch  Enloe. 
My  father  was  the  youngest  son  of  his  father 
by  his  last  wife,  an  Irish  woman  by  the  name 
of  Jane  McCord,  whom  he  married  long  after 
his  first  wife's  death  (whose  maiden  name  I 
never  knew),  and  after  his  oldest  son  Ben, 
had  married  and  had  quite  a  family. 
Have  often  heard  my  grandfather,  while 
I  was  quite  young,  speak  of  his  neph- 
ews, some  of  whom,  were  older  than  him- 
self (sons  of  Ben),  and  with  whom 
he  was  raised.  They  were  named  Enoch r 
Benjamin,  Joel,  Abraham,  and  others  I  do  not 
remember.  His  nephew  Enoch,  was  older 


288 


than  grandfather  some  few  years,  moved  from 
Tennessee  to  Missouri  a  few  years  after  grand- 
father did,  which  was  in  1828,  both  settling 
in  this,  Cole  county,  near  Russellville.  Both 
lived  to  be  eighty  odd  years  old,  and  both 
raised  large  families.  This  nephew  Enoch,  I 
remember  seeing  the  last  years  of  his  life, 
which  was  about  1874  (that  being  the  year 
of  his  death).  Grandfather,  James  Enloe,  died 
in  1877.  We  always  spoke  of,  and  called  this 
old  nephew  of  grandfather's,  Cousin  Enoch, 
for  he  was  my  father's  first  half  cousin. 

Will  now  try  to  give  the  history  beginning 
further  back,  and  it's  what  I  don't  know 
about  the  Enloe  family  away  back,  that  in- 
terests me  most.  From  my  oldest  brother, 
James,  who  is  about  fifty-six  years  old, 
and  who  has  heard  grandfather  speak  of  his 
ancestors  during  his  life,  I  have  information 
to  this  effect :  It  appears  that  the  first  of  the 
Enloe  stock  or  family,  consisting  of  two 
brothers  named  Isaac  and  Enoch,  both  school 
teachers,  settled  in  South  Carolina,  having 
previously  taught  school  or  lived  for  a  short 
time  in  Maryland.  This  was  some  time  near 


289 

the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Both 
originally  came  from  Scotland.  My  great- 
grandfather, Enoch,  was  one  of  these  Enloe 
brothers.  Both  brothers,  Isaac  and  Enoch, 
married  in  South  Carolina  and  raised  large 
families,  Isaac's  family  became  very  wealthy 
and  remained  in  that  State.  Enoch's  family 
later  on,  say  about  1808,  moved  to  Tennessee. 
Am  not  able  to  go  any  farther  backhand  am 
not  positive  that  I  am  right  about  names,  as 
it  had  always  occurred  to  me  that  my  great- 
grandfather's name  was  Isaac,  unti^brother 
James,  about  two  years  ago,  told  me  that  his 
name  was  Enoch,  and  he  ought  to  know,  as 
he  often  talked  to  grandfather  on  the  subject 
<during  his  life-time. 

In  1808  my  grandfather  moved  with  his 
half  brother's  family  from  South  Carolina  to 
Tennessee — to  what  part  I  don't  know — both 
lie  and  his  brother  Isaac,  making  Benjamin's 
home  their  home,  until  they  were  grown  up, 
-or  nearly  so. 

My  grandfather  married  Nancy  Simpson, 
a  sister  of  his  brother  Isaac's  wife.  Isaac  and 
wife  both  died,  leaving  three  sons,  all  or- 


290 

phans,  named  Benjamin,  James  and  JoeL 
Ben  was  raised  by  George  Leslie,  who  was; 
his  uncle  by  virtue  of  Leslie  having  married! 
a  Simpson.  Benjamin  still  lives  in  Tennes- 
see and  is  the  father  of  Benjamin  A.,  the  Con- 
gressman, Dr.  Thomas  and  Dr.  James,  both* 
of  Nashville,  Tenn.  James  and  Joel  were 
brought  to  Missouri  by  my  grandfather,, 
who  went  back  to  Tennessee  after  them,  after 
the  death  of  their  father,  and  some  years- 
after  he  had  located  in  Missouri,  and  he  raised 
Joel,  and  Win.  Leslie  raised  James,  who  was- 
also  an  uncle  by  virtue  of  having  married  a, 
Simpson.  James  married  his  'cousin,  Polly 
Enloe,  who  was  a  daughter  of  grandfather 
(regardless  of  his,  grandfather's  protest),, 
and  moved  to  Texas,  raised,  or  partly  raised, 
a  family,  all  of  whom  are  now  dead,  includ- 
ing himself  and  wife.  Joel  married  a  Miss. 
Amos  near  Russell ville,  Mo.,  and  died  a  few 
years  later,  leaving  one  son  and  two  daugh- 
ters, all  of  whom  are  still  living.  His  son  is. 
named  Isaac,  and  lives  near  Russellville,  Mo. 
Now,  as  to  grandfather's  family,  I  give 
it  last,  as  he  was  the  youngest  of  the  two* 


291 

"brothers.  James  Enloe  was  born  in  York 
•County,  South  Carolina,  February  19,  1793; 
moved  with  his  brother  Ben  to  Tennessee  in 
1808,  was  married  about  1813  to  Miss  Nancy 
Simpson,  and  in  1830-31  moved  to  the  State 
•of  Missouri,  settling  near  Russellville  in  Cole 
County,  where  he  entered  land  and  farmed, 
devoting  most  of  his  attention  to  horses  and 
politics,  representing  Cole  County  in  the 
State  Legislature  once,  and  Moniteau,  after  it 
was  cut  off  from  Cole  County,  twice ;  raised 
a  family  of  nine  children,  and  died  in  1877 
at  his  youngest  son  Abraham's  home  in  Mon- 
iteau County,  where  he  was  making  his  home. 
His  children  were  named  as  follows  :  Enoch, 
John  S.,  Hugh,  Isaac,  Jennie,  Polly,  Benja- 
min, William  and  Abraham. 

My  father  Enoch  was  born  in  Barren 
County,  Kentucky,  where  his  father  had 
moved  temporarily  May  19,  1814,  he  moved 
with  his  father  to  Missouri  in  1830—31 ; 
married  Miss  Jane  Murray  in  1837,  by  which 
union  fifteen  children  were  born,  named  as 
follows :  James,  the  oldest,  now  about  56 
years  old ;  Polly,  Pollyann,  and  Nancy, 


Thomas,  Hugh,  Maggie,  Jennie,  Barbara,. 
Henry,  Enoch,  Emma,  John  S.,  Isaac  N., 
Sarah  and  Abraham.  Polly,  Pollyann,  Nancy 
and  Abraham  died  young. 

My  father  died  in  1873,  mother  in  1887. 
Brother  James  lives  at  Versailles,  Morgan 
County,  Mo.,  where  his  two  oldest  sons,  H.. 
King  and  Lone,  are  in  the  dry  goods  busi- 
ness. Brother  Thomas  lives  near  Russell- 
ville  in  Cole  County,  and  is  farming  and  owns 
the  farm  so  long  the  home  of  his  grand- 
father. Hugh  L.  Enloe  lives  in  Russellville,. 
and  is  a  dry  goods  merchant.  Sister  Maggie 
is  the  wife  of  A.  J.  Thompson,  and  they  live 
in  California,  Mo.  Sister  Jennie  on  my 
father's  old  farm  in  Moniteau  County,  eight 
miles  southeast  of  California,  Mo.,  and  is  the 
wife  of  W.  M.  Gregory.  Barbara  lives  near 
California  and  is  the  wife  of  W.  H.  Allen. 
Henry  Enoch  Enloe  lives  in  Fresno,  Cal. 
Emma  lives  at  Eugene,  Oregon,  and  is  the 
wife  of  George  Cornell.  Dr.  John  S.  Enloe,. 
has  been  practicing  medicine  at  St.  Thomas > 
Mo.,  twenty  miles  south  of  here,  but  has  sold 
out.  His  wife  and  three  children  are  with 


293 

her  mother,  and  he  is  now  in  New  York  City, 
attending  a  post-graduate  course  of  lectures 
at  the  Polyclinic  Hospital  School  of  Medi- 
cine. He  will  likely  locate  in  the  State  again 
upon  his  return.  I  come  next  in  order.  I 
was  born  in  1860  in  Moniteau  County,  on  the 
farm  where  nearly  all  the  children  were 
raised,  located  eight  miles  southeast  of  Cali- 
fornia. Graduated  from  the  Missouri  Medical 
College,  St.  Louis,  class  of  1883,  located  at 
St.  Thomas,  Mo.,  where  I  practiced  till  Octo- 
ber, 1889,  when  I  sold  out  to  my  brother 
John,  went  to  New  York,  spending  part  of  the 
winter  there,  attending  a  post-graduate  course, 
after  which  I  located  in  Jefferson  City,  where 
I  have  practiced  ever  since,  married  Miss 
Rebecca  J.  Short,  October  12,  1886.  Our 
family  consists  of  two  girls  and  two  boys. 
The  oldest  six  years  old  and  the  youngest  ten 
months,  name  Loyce,  Ada,  David  and  Justin. 
I  was  elected  Coroner  of  this  county  on  the 
Republican  ticket  in  1884,  and  defeated  for 
Representative  of  this  county  in  1888. 

Old  cousin  Enoch  Enloe's  family  are,    as 
a  rule,  Democrats,   while  the  descendants  of 


294 

grandfather,  with  the  exception  of  John  S., 
his  second  son,  are  all  strong  in  the  Republi- 
can faith. 

Will  state  that  I  was  both  pleased  and  sur- 
prised to  receive  a  letter  from  you,  not  know- 
ing that  such  a  man  was  in  existence;  also 
glad  to  note,  judging  from  indications,  that 
you  are  prospering  and  right  in  politics. 
Would  be  pleased  to  have  you  visit  me,  and 
there  are  other  Enloes  in  Missouri  who  would 
make  you  feel  at  home  among  them,  should 
you  ever  see  fit  to  pay  this  section  of  the 
country  a  visit.  Now,  take  your  time  and  give 
me  all  the  information  you  have  in  regard  to 
your  family,  and  the  same  will  be  appreciated 
by  me.  Very  respectfully  yours, 

I.  N.  ENLOE. 


MULBERRY  GROVE,  ILL.,  May,  1893. 
Dr.  I.  N.  Enloe: 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  Yours  of  the  5th  to  hand  and 
in  reply  will  say  that  I  am  not  well  posted  on 
the  genealogy  of  the  Enloe  family,  but  I 
know  from  the  names  that  you  give  me,  that 
you  are  of  the  same  stock  and  started  from 


295 

the  same  section  of  the  country,  York  county, 
South  Carolina.  You  say  that  you  don't 
think  that  my  father  could  have  been  a  full 
cousin  to  the  father  of  B.  A.  Enloe,  the  Ten- 
nessee congressman.  I  will  give  the  genealogy 
as  given  by  my  father  in  the  history  of  Bond 
county,  111.  He  says  that  his  father  was  the 
son  of  Isaac  Enloe,  a  Scotsman  who  came  to 
this  country  from  Scotland  near  the  middle 
of,  or  about  the  year  1750.  There  were  two 
brothers,  as  you  say,  Isaac  and  Enoch.  My 
father's  name  was  James.  He  was  born  in 
1803  in  York  county,  South  Carolina.  His 
father's  name  was  Isaac  and  he  was  the  son  of 
•one  of  the  original  Scotch  brothers  that  came 
to  this  country  from  Scotland  about  1750, 
and  served  in  the  Revolutionary  war.  My 
grandfather  had  a  brother  named  Gilbert  that 
never  left  South  Carolina,  so  far  as  I  know. 
He  was  there  and  still  living  in  1868.  My 
grandfather  left  South  Carolina  in  about  1768 
and  came  to  Davidson  county,  Tenn.,  where 
he  taught  school  for  some  time,  and  you  will 
find  that  he  is  given  quite  a  prominent  place 
in  the  history  of  that  county,  as  an  educator. 


296 

He  left  Tennessee  with  his  family  and  arrived 
in  Madison  county,  111.,  in  1816.  Moved  to 
Bond  county,  111.,  in  the  year  1818.  My 
grandfather  was  a  surveyor  and  teacher  in 
this  county  from  1820  until  he  became  too 
old  to  follow  these  vocations  further.  He 
died  in  this  county  as  near  as  I  can  remember 
about  1852.  He  was  a  Presbyterian  in  re- 
ligious belief  as  most  of  the  Enloes  are,  I  be- 
lieve. If  my  grandfather  ever  had  any  broth- 
ers except  Gilbert,  I  never  heard  my  father 
say  anything  about  them,  and  don't  think 
that  there  were  any  sisters  of  grandfather  and 
Gilbert;  never  heard  of  any.  The  names  of 
my  father's  brothers  were  Ezekiel,  James, 
Enoch,  Nathaniel  and  Isaac.  Isaac  died  in 
this  county  only  a  few  years  ago  near  75  years 
old.  Enoch  lived  and  died  in  Wisconsin. 
There  are  none  of  Asahel  Enloe's  sons  or 
daughters  now  living.  I  have  two  brothers 
living  here,  I.  N.  and  E.  L.  Enloe.  I.  N.  is 
older  than  myself  and  was  also  in  the  army 
during  the  war,  as  also  was  my  youngest 
brother,  E.  L,. ,  and  myself.  Both  rose  to  the 
command  of  our  companies.  I  went  through 


297 

without  being  wounded,  but  I.  N.  was  shot 
through  the  leg,  in  front  of  Atlanta.  All 
the  Enloes  here  are  Republicans  of  the 
strictest  sect,  except  E.  L.  He  is  a  Demo- 
crat. During  the  war  we  captured  an  Enloe 
near  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  and  I  had  never 
heard  of  him  before,  but  1  knew  him  as  soon 
as  1  saw  him.  He  was  named  Nathaniel 
Enloe,  and  was  a  cousin  of  James  Enloe,  the 
Presbyterian  preacher  that  lived  at  Holly 
Spring  during  the  war.  I  have  also  heard 
my  father  and  uncles  speak  about  Ben  and 
Joel  Enloe,  who  lived  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  State.  Ben  used  to  represent  his  county 
in  the  Illinois  Legislature  when  the  capital  of 
our  State  was  at  Vandalia,  in  Fayette  county, 
only  ten  miles  from  my  place.  If  I  mistake 
not  they  lived  in  White  county,  and  were  both 
very  large  men  and  both  used  to  be  at  Van- 
dalia during  the  sessions  of  the  legislature. 
Ben  would  raise  a  row  in  the  legislature  or  on 
the  streets,  and  Joel  would  do  his  fighting. 
As  Joel  was  a  man  that  weighed  about  250 
pounds,  and  was  stout,  he  nearly  always  came 
out  all  right.  I  have  heard  my  father  tell 


298 

about  Ben  having  his  fun  with  our  represen- 
tative, Col.  Bentley  of  Greenville  ;  also  with 
Col.  McGlouthlin,  of  Vandalia.  I  think  that 
Ben  was  there  before  the  time  of  Lincoln  and 
Douglas,  but  these  times  are  now  passed.  I 
saw  by  the  papers  during  the  war  that  there 
was  an  Enloe  that  was  a  member  of  the  legis- 
lature of  your  State,  called  to  his  door  and 
shot  by  a  band  of  bushwhackers,  as  his  wife 
stood  by  his  side.  I  don't  remember  what 
county  he  represented,  but  think  it  was  St. 
Genevieve  county.  So  it  appears  that  at  least 
most  of  the  Enloes  in  the  North  were  loyal 
and  true.  Every  Enloe  of  the  name  here 
that  could  go  was  in  the  service.  I  have  been 
since  the  war,  county  commissioner,  police 
judge  of  this  city,  mayor  four  times,  have  been 
State  delegate  to  the  Republican  conventions 
before,  and  am  a  delegate  this  year  also,  and 
I  think  beyo.nd  a  doubt  we  will  nominate  a 
ticket  that  will  win  this  fall.  I  was  also  post- 
master here  for  a  term  of  four  years. 

Well,  wishing  you  success  in  life,  I  will 
•close.  Would  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you  at 
any  time.  SAM  G.  ENLOE. 


299 

I  herewith  send  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  re- 
cently received  from  J.  E.  Enloe,  Whittier,. 
N.  C. 

This  branch  of  the  family  I  had  never  been, 
able  to  trace  beyond  Gilbert,  who  was  a  son  of 
the  original  Enloes  of  1750.  This  letter  tells - 
the  story,  and  gives  a  pointer  that  will  enable 
you  to  become  reconciled,  as  to  the  meager 
reports,  you  have  no  doubt  often  heard,  that 
Lincoln  was  the  son  of  one  Abraham  Enloe. 

This  tradition  is  backed  with  such  strong, 
circumstantial  evidence  that  it  convicts. 

The  tradition  came  to  Missouri  from  Ken- 
tucky in  1828,  and  1835,  in  an  intensely  sub- 
dued form,  but  was  discussed  in  such  a  way 
during  the  war  that  the  younger  generation 
obtained  an  inkling  of  it. 

The  Enloes,  Leslies,  Simpsons,  Shorts,  Van 
Pools  are  the  people  I  have  reference  to.  They 
lived  at  that  time  in  Kentucky,  about  twenty 
miles  from  where  Columbus  is  now  located. 
They  were  neighbors  also  in  Missouri  and  but 
few  of  the  old  ones  are  now  living.  The 
J.  F.  E.  letter  reads  as  follows  : 


300 

WHITTLER,  N.  C.,  June  3,  1899. 
Dr.  I.  N.  Enloe,  Jefferson  City,  Mo.  : 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  was  forwarded  to 
me  from  Cherokee  where  I  once  lived.  In 
reply  to  your  letter  I  will  say  that  I  am  sure 
that  we  are  the  same  stock.  From  the  best  in- 
formation I  have,  there  were  three  brothers  of 
the  original  Enloes  who  came  from  the  Old 
Country.  They  made  their  first  stop  in  Mary- 
land, where  one  of  them  stayed  and  raised  a 
family.  One  of  them  emigrated  to  York  Dis- 
trict, South  Carolina ;  this  was  my  great- 
grandfather ;  I  think  his  name  was  Gilbert. 
My  grandfather,  Abraham  Enloe,  came  over  to 
Rutherford  county,  North  Carolina,  and  mar- 
ried a  Miss  Egerton.  He  afterwards  moved, 
first  above  the  Indian  Mission  in  Bucombe 
county,  then  to  Ocona  L,ufta  River,  where  he 
resided  till  his  death.  He  raised  nine  sons 
and  seven  daughters.  The  other  brother  of 
my  great-grandfather  and  one  of  the  original 
three  went  to  middle  Tennessee  and  settled. 
One  of  his  descendants,  B.  A.  Enloe,  repre- 
sented the  Eighth  Tennessee  District,  as  you 
state  in  your  letter.  Some  of  the  Yorkville 


301 

f 

branch  of  the  family  moved  to  Georgia,  and 
elsewhere.  In  Georgia  they  spell  their  name 
Inlow.  My  father  is  the  only  one  living  out 
of  sixteen.  He  is  in  his  Sgth  year. 

I  have  always  heard  that  Abe  Lincoln  was 
a  son  of  my  grandfather,  Abraham  Enloe. 

There  is  a  book  now  written  that  gives  a 
good  history  of  the  Enloe  and  Lincoln  tradi- 
tion.    It  is  by  Jas.  H.  Cathey,  of  Sylva,  N.  C. 
Yours  very  truly, 

J.  F.  ENLOE. 

[J.  F.  Enloe  is  undoubtedly  mistaken  about 
a  brother  of  his  great-grandfather,  and  one  of 
the  original  three,  moving  to  Tennessee.  This 
Tennessee  immigrant  was  either  a  brother  or 
cousin  of  his  grandfather — Abraham  Enloe. 
He  is  also  mistaken  about  Gilbert  Enloe  being 
his  great-grandfather.  Gilbert  Enloe  was  the 
son  of  Isaac  Enloe  and  belonged  to  the  same 
generation  as  J.  F.  Enloe's  grandfather  and 
was  the  cousin  of  his  grandfather  and,  doubt- 
less, the  son  of  Enoch  Enloe,  the  other  of  the 
original  Scotch  brothers. — THE  AUTHOR.] 


302 

I  have  never  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
Sam  G.  Enloe,  yet  I  am  satisfied  he  is  an  En- 
loe  of  the  old  type.  In  a  letter  dated  May 
28,  1899,  he  states  in  substance,  that  he  is 
fifty-nine  years  of  age,  six  feet  and  one-half 
inches,  weight  one  hundred  and  eighty.  I 
herewith  (without  his  permission,  but  know- 
ing it  will  not  offend  him)  submit  to  you  an- 
other letter  recently  received  from  him  : 

MULBERRY  GROVE,  ILL.,  June  6,  1899. 
Dr.  L  N.  Enloe: 

DEAR  SIR  : — Yours  of  the  5th  received.    At 
first  I  will  give  you   the  names  and   ages  of 
iny  sisters  and  brothers  :  first,  Nancy  A.  En- 
loe, born  1830 — 69  years  old  ;  Mary  E.  Enloe, 
born  1832 — 67  years  old  ;   William  B.  Enloev 
born  1834 — 65  years  old;  Isaac  N.  Enloe,  born 
1836 — 63  years  old  ;    Violet    R.   Enloe,  born 
1838 — 6 1  years  old;    Samuel  G.   Enloe,  born 
1840 — 59   years  old;   Emery   L.  Enloe,  born 
1842 — 57  years  old  ;  Harriette  N.  Enloe,  born 
1845 — 54   Years   old;  Louisa  I.   Enloe,  born 
1847 — 52    years  old ;   James  S.    Enloe,    born 
1849 — 5°  Years  °ld  ;  Cynthy  E.   Enloe,  born. 


303 

1851 — 48  years  old;  Emily  Zanta via  Enloej 
born  1856 — 43  years  old.  Of  these  Nancy  A., 
William  B.,  Violet  R.,  Harriet  N.,  James  So 
and  Emily  Z.,  are  dead,  six  dead  and  six 
living.  Father  and  mother  both  dead  ;  mother 
died  in  1871  and  father  in  1884.  Father  had 
five  sisters  and  brothers,  and  what  I  can  learn 
of  the  stock  all  over  the  country,  they  always 
have  been  and  still  are,  very  prolific.  I  have 
but  one  child,  Ernest  R.  Enloe,  born  1872, 
and  now  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  he  is 
married  and  has  two  children,  Loucile  E. 
Enloe,  and  Rachel  Enloe,  both  girls,  one  four 
years  old  and  the  other  two  years  old.  This 
is  correct  so  far  as  my  father's  and  my  own 
families  are  concerned. 

SAM  G.  ENLOE. 

I  think  beyond  a  doubt  that  J.  F.  Enloe  is 
mistaken  as  to  Gilbert  Enloe  being  one  of  the 
old  ones  that  came  from  Scotland  with  Enoch 
and  Isaac,  but  Gilbert  was  the  son  of  Isaac 
and  was  a  brother  of  my  grandfather  Asahel, 
and  uncle  of  my  father.  I  have  heard  my 
father  tell  of  old  Uncle  Gilbert  many  a  time, 
and  I  have  talked  with  a  man  since  the  war 


who  came  from  there  since  the  war,  and  he 
told  me  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  old 
Uncle  Gilbert.  I  don't  think  that  Gilbert  was 
as  old  as  my  grandfather,  but  still  he  was  old 
enough  to  be  the  father  of  J.  F.'s  grandfather. 
So  I  think  J.  F.  and  I  are  of  the  same  brand 
of  the  family.  I  guess  that  B.  A.  Enloe,  of 
Tennessee,  is  of  the  Enoch  brand.  There 
was  during  the  war  a  James  Enloe  near 
Holly  Springs,  Miss.  He  was  a  Presby- 
terian minister,  and  there  were  other  En- 
loes  lived  there.  We  captured  one  named 
Nathaniel  Enloe,  and  I  knew  that  he  was 
an  Enloe  as  soon  as  I  saw  him,  and  he  knew 
me  although  we  had  never  seen  or  heard 
of  each  other  before.  We  shook  hands  whilst 
both  Fed.  and  Confed.  looked  on,  but  all 
noted  the  resemblance.  He  claimed  he  and 
Jim  both  to  be  cousins  of  my  father.  There 
are  also  two  doctors  I  think  living  in  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  and  there  used  to  be  a  Presbyte- 
rian preacher  who  lived  in  Murfreesboro,  Tenn. 
Our  folks  of  the  old  stock  were  all  Presbyte- 
rians. The  Abraham  spoken  of,  I  think  by 
J.  F.,  was  the  father  of  Wesley,  a  grandfather 


3°5 

t 

of  J.  P.,  that  would  make  Gilbert  J.  F.'s  great- 
grandfather, provided  Abraham  was  Gilbert's 
son,  which  I  think  he  was.  I  have  written  to 
South  Carolina  and  North  Carolina  both  for 
information,  and  when  I  get  it  I  will  let  you 
know,  but  I  guess  that  you  have  no  doubt 
noticed  the  marked  personal  resemblance  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Enloes.  Most  of 
the  Enloes  are  tall,  raw-boned,  high  cheeks 
and  immense  ears,  all  but  me,  and  I  got  mine 
froze  off  during  the  war.  We  are  all  of 
Southern  origin,  I  on  both  sides ;  my  father 
having  been  born  in  South  Carolina  and  my 
mother,  who  was  a  Bradford,  a  sister  of  Judge 
James  Bradford,  was  born  in  Kentucky.  She 
was  a  cousin  of  the  Mayor  Bradford  that  was 
slain  after  capture  of  the  Rebs  at  Fort  Dillon 
in  1863.  If,  at  sometime  when  you  are  mak- 
ing a  business  trip  to  St.  Louis,  you  will  let 
me  know,  I  will  meet  you  there  if  I  can  and 
get  better  acquainted  with  you.  I  think  that 
I  have  given  you  the  facts  as  I  understood 
them,  so  I  will  close.  Hoping  to  hear  from 
you  often,  I  remain  as  ever, 

SAM  G-  ENLOE. 


I      306 

It  appears  that  the  two  original  brothers 
were  pioneers  of  South  Carolina  about  the 
year  1750  where  they  both  died.  Their  de- 
scendants being  among  the  earlier  settlers  of 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Illinois, 
Missouri,  Texas,  and  California,  some  drifting 
to  Georgia  and  Wisconsin. 

They  were  possessed  of  more  than  ordinary 
physical  ability,  honesty,  determination  and 
endurance.  Physical  ability,  determination 
and  endurance  are  attested  by  the  prompt 
manner  in  which  they  pushed  forward  into 
new  country,  facing  strange  and  partially  civ- 
ilized people,  and  poverty.  As  to  honesty,  the 
assertion  goes  with  my  convictions. 

Joel  and  Benjamin  Enloe,  spoken  of  by  Sam 
G-,  in  his  letter  as  being  at  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois  prior  to  1860,  were  the  sons  of  Benja- 
min. 

Benjamin  was  the  old  half  brother  of  Isaac 
and  James,  our  grandfathers.  Isaac  and  James 
grew  up  wilh  Joel  and  Ben  and  their  brothers. 

I  have  often  heard  my  grandfather  talk 
about  Joel's  fights  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee- 
We  knew  that  Ben  had  located  in  Illinois  but 


30? 

did  not  know  what  had  become  of  Joel  until 
Sam  G.  related  the  characteristics  of  Joel  and 
Ben  of  Illinois.  Hence,  I  take  it,  they  are 
the  same  people. 

These  letters  cover  the  ground  in  a  way,  and 
I  trust  they  will  be  of  interest  to  you.  Changes 
are  always  occurring  as  time  rolls  on.  But 
so  slight  in  this  case  with  our  family  that  the 
mention  of  the  same  would  be  of  little  inter- 
est, to  you. 

My  family  now  consist  of  L,oyce,  age  n, 
Ada  9,  David  7,  Justin  5,  Robert  and  Roscoe 
(twins),  age  3  years.  Brother  John  is  now 
located  in  Southeast  Missouri,  at  Greenville, 
Wayne  county. 

Have  been  feeling  duty  bound  to  write  you 
on  this  subject  for  quite  a  while,  but  busy  pro- 
fessionally, and  dreading  the  task,  anyway,  I 
have  deferred  it  .from  time  to  time. 

This  leaves  all  well.  With  kindest  regards 
I  remain,  yours  truly, 

I.  N.  ENLOE. 


THE   ENP, 


